Seven Men’s Soccer Players Earn All-WCC; Rast Named Coach of the Year

Posted: Nov 17, 2021

SAN MATEO, Calif. – Seven Santa Clara men's soccer players and head coach Cam Rast were recognized by the West Coast Conference after winning the WCC Championship for the 13th time in program history.

Javier Ruiz Duran and Oladayo Thomas were named first team All-WCC, Alejandro Barajas and Joshua Dabora made the second team while Juan O'Neill was recognized as an honorable mention with Tyrone Kirunda and Dominic Vegaalban named to the All-Freshman team.

The all-conference teams and award winners were voted on by the eight head coaches with selection based solely on the outstanding athletic achievement in league competition.

In WCC action, Ruiz Duran led the conference in assists with seven and tied for second in points with 11 to garner his fifth all-conference recognition. On the season, including nonconference play, those totals were 10 assists and 16 points, respectively. The graduate student from Barcelona, Spain, was named first team for the third-straight year. In 2018, he was a second teamer and in 2017, he was on the All-Freshman team.

Thomas scored nine goals and assisted on six others during the year with three of those goals and three assists coming in league play. Two of the goals scored in WCC competition were game winners. Last season, Thomas was named honorable mention.

Barajas earned second team honors this fall after being named honorable mention in 2020. The hard-nosed midfielder started in all six conference games he appeared in tallying two assists.

Dabora playing in his first season with Santa Clara after transferring from Penn State, scored five goals in six conference games. He also added an assist to finish tied for second in the league with 11 points along with two game-winning goals.

O'Neill played in all seven conference matches, starting in six where he tallied two assists. This was his first conference honor for the midfielder from Guaynabo, Puerto Rico.

A pair of first-year players, Tyrone Kirunda and Dominic Vegaalban, were named to the All-Freshman team. Kirunda came off the bench in all but one game during WCC competition and came through with a goal and an assist. Vegaalban also had a goal in league play.

The seven selections are the most for the Broncos since placing eight in 2015, the last time they won the WCC.

In his 20^th season at the helm of the Broncos, Rast was named WCC Coach of the Year for the sixth time (2003, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2015) guiding the team to an 11-1-4 regular season record and landing a berth to the NCAA Tournament.

Santa Clara finished the regular season with their highest winning percentage (.813) since 2004 when they were 16-2-4 (.818) and went undefeated in the WCC for the fourth time in program history (1989: 4-0-1, 1994: 5-0-1, 2007: 10-0-2 and 2021: 5-0-2).

Santa Clara plays in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on the road against Akron on Thursday. Kickoff is at 4 p.m. PT.

LMU took home four of the five major player awards. Noel Caliskan was named the WCC Player of the Year for the second-straight time along winning the inaugural Midfielder of the Year award. Caliskan's teammates Nick Dauchot and Jacob Jackson were named WCC Defender and Goalkeeper of the Year, respectively. Pacific's Erik Centeno was named Freshman of the Year, the only non-LMU player to garner an award.