Four SJC Men’s Soccer Players Earn All-GNAC Honors

STANDISH, Maine – The 2015 Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Men’s Soccer All-Conference teams have been released and four Saint Joseph’s College players have earned honors.
 
Senior Ralph Houanche (Port-au-Prince, Haiti) and juniors Johnny Thomas (Boston, Mass.) and Sean Baker (Medfield, Mass.) have claimed Second Team honors and sophomore Austin Bell (Gorham, Maine) has been listed on the Third Team for the second-consecutive season.
 
Houanche collects his first All-Conference nod after netting a goal with five assists for seven total
points. The senior midfielder capped his career with four goals and six helpers for 14 total points in 75 contests over four collegiate seasons.
 
Thomas, a junior transfer from Bunker Hill Community College, earns Second Team honors after totaling six goals and a pair of assists for 14 total points in his first year with the Monks. The center mid led the SJC side in shots (42) and tied for the team-lead with 21 shots on goal while ranking second in goals and third in points.
 
Baker collects his first postseason honor after netting five goals, including the game-winner versus Suffolk University on October 9th, during his third collegiate campaign. The junior defender hit pay dirt on half of his shots, with 10 total attempts and six on target this fall.
 
Bell earns Third Team honors after netting three goals with nine assists for 15 total points during his sophomore season. He capped the season tied for the conference lead in assists, a total which is also tied for the second most ever recorded in a single season by an SJC men’s soccer player.
 
Under the watch of second-year Head Coach Adrian Dubois, Saint Joseph’s registered one of the best turnaround seasons in program history this fall. In 2014, the Monks went 5-15-0 overall, including a 3-6-0 mark in GNAC play. This season, with the help of an impressive recruiting class, St. Joe’s went 11-7-1 (6-3-0 GNAC) en route to securing the #3 seed in the conference tournament and hosted sixth-seeded Albertus Magnus College in a GNAC quarterfinal on November 1st.
 
The Monks scored early and held a 1-0 edge until the 70th minute, when the Falcons knotted the match and the contest went into overtime, with Albertus Magnus netting the winning goal in the 96th minute.
 
The 2015 men’s soccer side set new team records for goals (48), assists (35), points (131) and suffered just two shutouts all season, the fewest goose-egg efforts against in program history (the 1997 team was also shut out twice).