CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Winner of its second-straight America East men’s soccer regular-season title, UMBC’s success has been rewarded with four of the league’s six major awards as the conference’s top honors and all-conference teams were announced Friday afternoon. Standouts from Albany, Binghamton and UMass Lowell earned the other major accolades. The award winners and all-conference teams were determined in a vote by the league’s head coaches who could not vote for their own team.The Retrievers’ Oumar Ballo was tabbed America East’s Defender of the Year for the second-consecutive season, while teammates Kay Banjo and Mamadou Kansaye were named Striker and Midfielder of the Year, respectively. The trio’s coaches, led by head coach Pete Caringi, Jr., were named Coaching Staff of the Year for the second-straight year. Binghamton’s Robert Moewes was tabbed Goalkeeper of the Year and Albany’s Afonso Pinheiro and Austin Kroll shared Rookie of the Year honors. Ballo, a senior back, is just the second player to earn consecutive Defender of the Year honors. An All-American a year ago, Ballo led a back line that allowed just four goals in seven conference games and has a 1.0 overall goals-against average, good for second in the league. He is also a first-team all-league back.Banjo, a senior forward, made an immediate impact after transferring from Towson. He leads the conference in points (20) tied for the league lead in goals (7) and assists (6) The fifth Retriever to earn Striker of the Year honors in the last six years, Banjo is also a first-team All-America East selection. Kansaye, a senior midfielder, is the Midfielder of the Year and a first-team all-leaguer for the second-straight year. The fifth UMBC player to win the award, Kansaye is tied for third in the league with 14 points and his six assists are a league best. He scored three goals, one of which was a game winner.Caringi and his staff earned the league’s top coaching honor for the second-straight year and third time overall. UMBC, which was ranked nationally earlier in the year, completed its second-straight unbeaten league schedule en route to winning its second-straight regular-season crown. Moewes, a sophomore goalkeeper, is the Binghamton’s first Goalkeeper of the Year since 2002. He ranked fourth in the conference in both goals-against average (1.13) and save percentage (.797) while making 4.5 saves per game. Both of the first-team keeper’s shutouts came against America East opponents. Pinheiro, a freshman forward, is Albany’s first-ever Rookie of the Year award winner. A two-time America East Rookie of the Week, Pinheiro is tied for third among league leaders with 14 points and third in goals with seven. He is also a second-team all-conference forward.Kroll, a freshman goalkeeper, is UMass Lowell’s first-ever America East major award winner. The freshman earned four Rookie of the Week awards during the season, including the last three. Kroll excelled in league play with three shutouts and an America East-best .872 percent save percentage.Joining Banjo among the first-team forwards are Hartford’s Javoni Simms, a repeat choice, and Vermont’s Brian Wright. Hartford’s Rohan Roye, UMBC’s Geaton Caltalbiano and UMass Lowell’s Carlos Ruiz join Kansaye in the first-team midfield. Ballo is accompanied by Hartford’s Jhamie Hyde and UMass Lowell’s Wuilito Fernandes as the first-team defenders.Pinherio has Binghamton’s Steve Celeste and UMass Lowell’s Homero Morais with him as second-team forwards. Binghamton’s Tommy Moon, Hartford’s Udi Cohen and Stony Brook’s Alejandro Fritz and Martin Giordano are the second-team midfielders. Albany’s Dominic McGarr is a second-team defender along with UMBC’s Jordan Becker and Marquez Fernandez. Hartford’s David MacKinnon is the second-team goalkeeper. The All-Rookie squad consists of Pinheiro, Kroll, Binghamton’s Isaiah Barrett and Christian Dam, Hartford’s Andre Morrison, UMass Lowell’s Joseph Conti, Federico Ferre and Austin Kimball, Stony Brook’s Thibault Duval, Vice Erder and Danny Espinoza and Vermont’s Arthur Bacquet. Six all-conference choices are also all-academic honorees including McGarr, MacKinnon, Fernandez, Ruiz, Giordano and Fritz are also All-Academic choices. They are joined by Albany’s Phil DeNara, Hartford’s Blake Jones, Anthony LoBello and Connor Yeaney, UMBC’s Billy Heavner and Michael Scott and UNH’s David Schlatter. To be eligible for all-academic, student-athletes must have sophomore athletic eligibility, attain a 3.30 minimum grade-point average and be a significant contributor athletically. The team is voted on by a committee made up of America East student-athlete support and athletic communications administrators as well as faculty athletic representatives. The majority of the honorees will compete in the America East Men’s Soccer Championship, which starts Saturday with quarterfinal action. Fourth-seeded Albany hosts fifth-seeded Vermont at 11 a.m. while third-seeded Binghamton entertains sixth-seeded Stony Brook at 6 p.m. The teams that advance will play in the semifinal round on Wednesday, Nov. 12 with the Albany-Vermont winner playing at top-seeded UMBC and the Binghamton-Stony Brook winner playing at second-seeded Hartford. Both semifinal games will be at 7 p.m. The semifinal winners will meet for the America East title and a trip to the NCAA tournament on either Nov. 16 or 17. All games will be streamed live for free at AmericaEast.TV.