Lock Haven, Pa. - Mercyhurst Men's Soccer continues to pile up the awards for the 2022 season. The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference announced their all-conference selections this afternoon with the Lakers bringing home several big awards as they had seven all-conference honorees and three PSAC West yearly award winners.
Mercyhurst had the most players of any team in the PSAC be named to the First Team as they had six honorees. Martin Grzywa, Nic Münch, Sean Kerrigan, Julius Becker, Dylan Sumner, and Jonathan Gomes all found their way onto the PSAC West First Team list while Lockie Fay was the lone Laker on the Second Team. The seven award winners are the most Mercyhurst has ever had in one season, showing how well-rounded of a group Head Coach Ryan Osborne has assembled.
Four of the seven all-conference selections are named so for the first time in their careers. The team's lone second teamer Lockie Fay, Martin Grzywa, Julius Becker, and Jonathan Gomes are named to the list for the first time with each proving to be an integral part of the team's success. While none of them were tops in goals or assists, they each played their part in helping the Lakers have continued success on their way to the program's first undefeated season and the fewest goals in a single season in Laker history.
Sean Kerrigan, Nic Münch, and Dylan Sumner each see themselves on the list for the second year in a row, making it as members of the First Team for the second time in as many tries. The trio of Lakers proved to put up big numbers all season long as Sumner led the way for the team, and conference, in assists with 13 while Kerrigan was first on the team and second in the PSAC in goals (18). Münch was right there along with his two running mates as he was third on the team in goals with eight while second in assists at 11 as he claimed one of Mercyhurst's five PSAC West Athlete of the Week awards during the season.
The hardware did not stop there for the Lakers with them grabbing three of the end of the year awards as Dylan Sumner was named the PSAC Athlete of the Year while Jonathan Gomes was the Defensive Athlete of the Year and Head Coach Ryan Osborne Coach of the Year.
After winning the Rookie of the year in 2021, Sumner collects another conference trophy with his Athlete of the Year honor as the fourth Laker to do so since 2012. The sophomore finished the season third in shots with 70 while his 13 assists led the conference and his nine goals were good enough for fifth. The majority of Sumner's scoring came down the home stretch of the season with him putting the ball in the back of the net seven times in the final six games of the season. In two of those games, he scored multiple goals including his first career hat trick on October 15th against Cal (Pa.).
Jonathan Gomes wins the PSAC West Defensive Athlete of the Year after a dominant season, one which the likes Mercyhurst has never seen. Gomes allowed a program record one goal all season for a goals allowed average of 0.07; both of those marks are tops in the conference and all of NCAA DII. He played 16 games on the year, starting all of them, and collected 36 saves with a .973 save percentage on his way to setting another program record for shutouts in a season with 15. He becomes the third player to win the Defensive Athlete of the Year over the past decade, joining Thomas Davis who won the award in 2015 and Ryan Lund who was named the recipient in 2014.
Head Coach Ryan Osborne makes it back-to-back seasons in which he has been named the winner of the PSAC West Coach of the Year. He has helped lead the Lakers to a 17-0-1 mark heading into the postseason for the first undefeated season in program history. Along with that, the team has scored the most goals of any team in the conference (70) and set a new program record for the fewest goals allowed in a season with three. Their goal differential of 67 is the most in the PSAC and second most in the country behind only Davis & Elkins' mark of 69. In just his three seasons as the head coach of the Lakers, Osborne has propelled them to one of the top teams not only in the PSAC, but in the country as he holds a career record of 35-4-5.
For a full list of all the conference honorees, click here.
