Stony Brook’s Pete Halkidis (Astoria, N.Y./Stuyvesant) and UMBC’s Marcus Gross (Barnstaple, England/The Park School) share this week’s America East Player of the Week award, while UMBC’s Steve King (Baltimore, Md./Archbishop Curley) garners the Rookie of Week honor. The awards were announced Monday (October 24).
Halkidis picked the perfect time to strike for his first career goal, collecting the game-winner in a 1-0 win over No. 19 Vermont to give the Seawolves sole possession of second place in America East and the first win over a ranked opponent in program history. Halkidis' goal came just over 20 minutes into the first half as Douglas Narvaez took a corner kick from the left side and made a short pass to Michael Palacio, who set the ball right back to Narvaez about 15 yards out. Narvaez served the ball into Halkidis, who deflected the pass into the left side of the net from 10 yards out to give Stony Brook a 1-0 lead at the 20:29 mark.
Gross, a central defender, heads a defense that has posted shutouts in seven of UMBC's last eight games. UMBC blanked New Hampshire, 2-0, and Maine, 1-0 (OT) this week to sew up a spot in the America East Tournament. The UMBC defense only allowed four UNH shots on Wednesday and two Black Bears shots on Saturday. In addition to being a solid defender, Gross has 3 goals and 1 assist on the season and was named to College Soccer News' National Team of the Week.
King posted his sixth and seventh shutouts in his seventh and eighth collegiate starts this week with a 2-0 win over UNH and a 1-0 overtime decision vs. Maine. He made a pair of saves against the Wildcats and did not need to register any stops versus the Black Bears. In 784 minutes of action, King has allowed four goals, all in one game vs. Vermont, and his GAA is an impressive 0.46.