Cambridge, Mass.- UMBC student-athletes received two of America East’s major postseason awards in men’s soccer, as senior defender Liam Paddock (Worcestershire, England/Chase Technology College) and junior forward Pete Caringi III (Perry Hall, Md./Calvert Hall) were named Defender of the Year and Striker of the Year respectively, in a vote conducted by the league’s coaches.

Nine Retrievers were honored from a team which enters the America East Tournament on a five-game winning streak and finished in second place in the conference. UMBC is 10-4-4 overall, 4-2-1 in league play and will host a league semifinal match on Wed., Nov. 7.

Caringi, Paddock and senior midfielder Milo Kapor (Toronto, Ont./Emily Carr) all earned America East First Team honors. Caringi and Kapor were two of three unanimous selections to the top squad.

Junior midfielder Kadeem Dacres (Rosedale, N.Y./Mercer County CC), junior goalkeeper Phil Saunders (Perry Hall, Md./Perry Hall) and sophomore defender Oumar Ballo (Baltimore, Md./Archbishop Curley/CCBC-Essex) were all named to the America East Second Team, while freshman midfielder Patrick Pato (Silver Spring, Md./Watkins Mill) earned All-Rookie Team honors.

Paddock, a unanimous and two-time selection, headed a group of three that earned All-Academic Team honors. Senior midfielderDave Vaeth (Dundalk, Md./Patapsco) and sophomore midfielderMichael DiCesare (Westerville, Ohio/St. Francis DeSale) were also selected to that 12-member squad.

Paddock, UMBC’s first-ever Defender of the Year in ten league seasons, also earned first team honors in 2011. A central fullback, he has started all 68 games he has dressed for in his four-year tenure. The 2012 ECAC Division I Scholar-Athlete of the Year scored a career-best three goals this season.

Caringi becomes the third Retriever to earn the league’s top honor at striker, following Andrew Bulls (2009) and Levi Houapeu(2010). He earned First Team All-Conference honors in 2011, after debuting on the Second Team and All-Rookie team in 2010.  Caringi leads the league with 14 goals and 32 points and is ranked fifth in the country in goals scored. He has been named America East Men’s Soccer Player of the Week on three occasions in 2012 and netted nine goals in seven conference games, the fifth-highest total in conference history.

Kapor has been spectacular on set pieces in 2012 and his 13 assists current lead all NCAA Division I players. He either scored or assisted on UMBC’s first 10 goals of the campaign. The 13 helpers are tied for third in school history and his 23 career assists have propelled him into the No. 3 position on UMBC’s all-time list.

Tallying four goals in his first season at UMBC, Dacres came on strong and finished second on the team to Caringi in that department. Saunders, who has played all 1,700 minutes in goal for UMBC this season, is tied for the conference lead with six shutouts and is maintaining a 0.90 goals against average. Ballo started all 18 games in his initial campaign with the Retrievers and was the lone field player to match Saunders by playing every minute of every contest.

Pato started six games and competed in 11 in the first two-thirds of the season until an injury curtailed his playing time down the stretch.

Vaeth and DiCesare were also starters for the squad. A holding midfielder and two-year starter, Vaeth  scored his first collegiate goal just 17 seconds into an October victory over Howard. He is maintaining a 3.44 grade-point average and working towards a degree in mechanical engineering. DiCesare, an attacking right-side midfielder, has earned 16 starts and is maintaining a gpa of 3.67 in biological sciences.

Stony Brook senior Leonardo Fernandes earned Midfielder of the Year honors, Vermont’s Conor Leland was named Goalkeeper of the Year, and Hartford freshman striker Javoni Simms was selected as the Rookie of the Year. The Vermont staff was selected as the Coaching Staff of the Year.

The nine honorees are the most for UMBC in ten league seasons and the most of any team in the conference in 2012. Seven different Retrievers were selected a year ago.

UMBC is now a season-best eighth (tied with Villanova) in the Northeast regional rankings. The Retrievers await the winner of the quarterfinal contest between No. 6 Binghamton at No. 3 Stony Brook to determine their semifinal match-up.    

For the complete listing of the America East All-Conference teams, please seewww.americaeast.com.

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