COLONIA, N.J. – Defending champion Queens topped the 2024 ECC Men's Soccer Preseason Poll, as voted on by the league's nine head coaches and announced on Wednesday afternoon. Additionally, St. Thomas Aquinas senior forward Kevon Evans (Ossining, N.Y.) was tabbed the ECC Preseason Offensive Player of the Year and Mercy senior goalkeeper Eirik Elvestad (Oslo, Norway) earned ECC Preseason Defensive Player of the Year recognition.
The top three teams were separated by just five votes, but Queens sat above the rest with four first-place votes and 72 total points. The Knights (12-8-2, 5-3 ECC) are coming off of a historic season in which they won the program’s first ECC Men’s Soccer Championship and went on to earn their first-ever NCAA Tournament victory.
Anchored by All-ECC First Team defender Jose Mendez, Queens returns 19 players from last year’s squad. On the offensive end, All-ECC Second Team forward Harry Cooke hit the back of the net a team-leading 10 times last fall, which included the match-winner in QC’s 2-1 NCAA Tournament First Round win over Notre Dame, while Andrew Johnson and Thomas Gunn scored twice each in the ECC postseason, with Gunn scoring the 1-0 game-winner in the championship match. Queens finished the year ranked 13th nationally in scoring production, at a clip of 2.5 goals per contest.
Fellow All-ECC Second Team pick Kevin Johnson enters his junior season of patrolling the Knights’ midfield while Queens returns its starting defensive unit of Andreas Charalambous, Nicolas Dias, Eyob Gaffigan, Joaquim Johnson, and Thomas Wagner.
Claiming two of the last four ECC Men’s Soccer Championship crowns in 2019 and 2022, Mercy comes in second in the preseason poll with two first-place votes and 69 points. Last fall, the Mavericks (9-4-5, 5-0-3 ECC) reached the ECC Semifinals as the No. 2 seed before falling to No. 3 Queens, 4-3.
Mercy returns a pair of ECC major award winners in Elvestad, the 2023 ECC Goalkeeper of the Year, and Julian Holland, the 2023 Defensive Co-Player of the Year, as well as Johannes Hankeen Tjosteim, who ranked in the ECC’s top three in points (30) and goals (13) and finished the fall ranked second nationally in shots on goal per game (2.63). Overall, Mercy welcomes back a majority of its starting defensive core in Elvestad, Holland, Martín Peñafiel, Jorgen Krohn-Pettersen, and Mathias Schilbred-Eriksen.
The reigning two-time ECC Goalkeeper of the Year, Elvestad went 9-4-5 in 18 starts last season with six shutouts, 63 saves, a .750 save percentage, and an 1.18 goals-against average in 1606:23 minutes of action. The Mercy senior is a two-time All-ECC First Team goalkeeper and owns a career record of 24-7-11.
St. Thomas Aquinas sits third in the preseason poll with one first-place vote and 67 points. After finishing 10-2-5 overall and 7-0-1 in conference play last fall, STAC earned the No. 1 seed in the postseason tournament but fell to No. 4 UDC in the semifinals. A new face in Edison Sanchez Aviles will lead the Spartans this fall, replacing Graham Brown after a 22-year tenure at the helm. Still on the prowl for their first ECC Championship crown, STAC appeared in the ECC title match once in program history, playing Molloy to a 1-1 draw in 2021. The trio of All-ECC Third Team midfielders Christian Ferlisi and Yahir Hernandez and defender Dwyant Swazo return, as well as reigning ECC Offensive Player of the Year Evans.
Evans topped the conference in total points (32) and points per game (2.13), tied for the conference lead in total goals (12) and goals per game (0.80), and ranked third in total assists (eight) and assists per game (0.53) throughout regular-season play last fall. The St. Thomas Aquinas forward registered at least one point in 14 of 16 matches for the Spartans, which included three four-point games and a pair of multi-goal games. With an average of 2.0 points per game at the conclusion of the 2023 campaign, Evans ranked sixth nationally.
District of Columbia appears fourth in the preseason poll with one first-place vote and 50 points. All-ECC First Team midfielder Axel Gamez’s 12 goals led UDC all the way to the ECC Championship match, marking just the second time in program history and first since 2017 in which the Firebirds appeared in the final. 2023 ECC Rookie of the Year Isaiah Daniel and All-ECC Third Team selections Santiago Gordillo Martinez and Sergio Becerra, the latter of who ranked in the ECC’s top three in both save percentage and goals against average for goalkeepers, create a strong returning core for UDC this fall.
Three All-ECC selections return for Roberts Wesleyan, who comes in fifth with 46 points. All-ECC First Team forward Tamas Nagy tied for the ECC lead in points (32) and goals (13) and will join All-ECC Third Team picks Cooper Kerridge and Nathan Ferguson in leading the Redhawks.
Led by their top two point scorers from a year ago in All-ECC Second Team selections Miguel Espinosa (9 goals) and Daniel Angulo (3 goals, 2 assists), Staten Island is the sixth and final team expected to make a postseason run with the final first-place vote and 34 points.
2024 Men’s Soccer Preseason Poll
1. Queens (72 points, 4 first-place votes)
2023 Record – 12-8-2, 5-3 ECC
2. Mercy (69 points, 2 first-place votes)
2023 Record – 9-4-5, 5-0-3 ECC
3. St. Thomas Aquinas (67 points, 1 first-place vote)
2023 Record – 10-2-5, 7-0-1 ECC
4. District of Columbia (50 points, 1 first-place vote)
2023 Record – 6-7-7, 3-1-4 ECC
5. Roberts Wesleyan (46 points)
2023 Record – 5-6-4, 3-3-2 ECC
6. Staten Island (34 points, 1 first-place vote)
2023 Record – 5-8-4, 2-3-3 ECC
7. Molloy (28 points)
2023 Record – 3-11-3, 2-5-1 ECC
8. D’Youville (22 points)
2023 Record – 0-13, 0-8 ECC
9. Daemen (17 points)
2023 Record – 3-11-1, 2-6 ECC
2024 Preseason Offensive Player of the Year: Kevon Evans, Sr., F, St. Thomas Aquinas
2024 Preseason Defensive Player of the Year: Eirik Elvestad, Sr., GK, Mercy