O’Connell, Shear, Morin honored as All-NESCAC in men’s soccer
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David Shear ’06 |
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Terence O’Connell ’06 |
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Brent Morin ’08 |
HADLEY, Mass. — A strong season for the Bates College men’s soccer team didn’t go unnoticed in the New England Small College Athletic Conference. The league’s opposing coaches voted two Bobcats onto the All-NESCAC first team, seniors David Shear and Terence O’Connell, and selected sophomore Brent Morin to the second team.
Shear, a co-captain for Bates, was perhaps the Bobcats’ most consistent performer as the lead playmaker at midfield. The senior from Concord, Mass., scored five goals with one assist, putting him third on the team in scoring behind the high-powered duo of Morin and O’Connell. Shear also came through in the clutch for Bates in its regular-season finale at Colby, scoring with eight minutes remaining to cut the Mules’ lead to 2-1, then adding a spectacular goal in overtime to win the game.
O’Connell, a forward from Greenwich, Conn., made first-team All-NESCAC for the second straight year with another outstanding run of scoring. O’Connell ranked at or near the top of the league leaders in goals and points all season long. O’Connell finished with 10 goals and four assists, nearly identical to his 10 goals and five assists in 2004. O’Connell was second in goals per game and points per game only to his sophomore linemate, Morin, and was tied for third in the conference with three game-winning goals. O’Connell earned NESCAC Player of the Week honors for the week of Sept. 26.
Morin followed up a promising first year with the Bobcats, in which he tallied seven goals and three assists, with a breakthrough season in 2005 as the top scorer in the conference. Morin was alone atop the NESCAC in points (27), points per game (1.93), goals (11) and goals per game (0.79), and his five assists ranked him in a tie for third in the league. Morin’s total of goals came the closest to Bob Lanz’s school record of 18, set in 1965, of any Bates player since at least the mid-1990s. Morin also was named NESCAC Player of the Week for the week of Oct. 24.