AUSTINTOWN – Five Wilmington College men's soccer players earned All-Ohio Athletic Conference recognition as voted by the league coaches announced today (November 13) by the OAC.
Junior Martin Holmquist (Karlstad, Sweded/Alvkulle Gymnasiet) became just the second Quaker to earn Defender of the Year honors, and earned first-team All-OAC honors for the second straight season. He spearheaded a WC defense that registered four shutouts. In addition, he added two goals and one assist.
"Martin is an outstanding player and has a very strong presence on the field," said head coach Bud Lewis. "His strength and size coupled with his very good technical ability to gain and maintain possession of the ball are very important to our team's defensive success. His leadership on the field and initiating our attacking play are key pieces to how we play."
Senior goalkeeper Anton Niklasson (Ockero, Sweden / Frolunda Gymnasiet) earned second team honors. Niklasson was, at times, spectacular in goal – helping erase some mistakes in the back line.
"Anton is very deserving of this recognition," said Lewis. "Although our team defense collectively was not of the standard that we needed to be more successful in wins and losses, Anton's goalkeeping kept us in many games that could have gone the other way. In nearly every game we played this season, Anton made two or more outstanding saves to give us a chance to win. His ability to play with his feet and serve good balls out of the back is the best we have ever had at Wilmington."
For the second straight season, junior Daniel Wicks (Cincinnati, OH/Reading) earned honorable mention honors, while sophomore transfer Nick Toney (Morrow, OH/Little Miami) and freshman Markus Tornberg (Stockholm, Sweden / Hersby Gymnasium) also picked up honorable mention laurels.
"Dan's work effort offensively and defensively was a key factor to our team's success," said Lewis. "He does so much work in the midfield chasing players down or making good runs out of the midfield. Dan also contributed some key goals and assists for us this season especially in some conference games.
"Nick's speed and ability to beat a defensive player is as good as any player we have had in recent years," Lewis added. "Nick was our leading goal scorer and although he struggled putting the ball on frame in many of our conference games, his ability to create dangerous scoring chances was key to our attacking play. Markus had a great season for us. The energy and effort he brings to the field was outstanding. He scored several game winning goals for us from the Midfield position but his best contribution to the team was his defensive play in the midfield. We lost Markus for several games with injuries and the lack of his presence in our lineup was often reflected in an negative outcome of the game."
Wilmington finished the season 6-12-2.