M. soccer racks up multiple yearly AE awards

The accolades keep rolling in for the Boston University men’s soccer team.

After the Terriers closed out their schedule as the America East regular-season champions, three members of the squad received yearly awards for their efforts. Junior Colin Henry was named AE Defender of the Year, fellow defender Kelvin Madzongwe won Rookie of the Year honors and BU coach Neil Roberts and the rest of the Terrier coaching staff took home the Coaching Staff of the Year Award.

Henry and Madzongwe were key parts of a BU defense that allowed 0.88 goals per game during the regular season, good enough for second in the conference behind University of New Hampshire’s 0.56. Henry is the first BU player to win Defender of the Year since 2006 when Zach Kirby achieved the feat. Madzongwe is the Terriers’ third Rookie of the Year in the last four seasons after starting all 16 games as the team’s sweeper.

Roberts won the 10th AE title in his 26 years on the BU sidelines and because of those noteworthy efforts was given the coaching award for the sixth time in his tenure along with assistant coaches Scott Black, Francis Okaroh and Dan Colwell.

Henry and junior forward Ben Berube were two of three unanimous selections to the AE All-Conference First Team and were joined by junior midfielder Michael Bustamante, junior midfielder Stephen Knox and senior forward Aaron O’Neal. Bustamante, in fact, was named to his third straight First Team in just his third season in the conference. Madzongwe and senior midfielder Ben Havey earned Second Team honors.

The Terriers led the All-Rookie Team with four selections including Madzongwe, goalie Brandon Briggs, midfielder Derrick McCaffery and defender Max White.

With the regular-season awards out of the way, BU now turns its attention toward the AE tournament where it will face the winner of University of New Hampshire and Binghamton University in next Wednesday’s semifinal matchup.