BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Matt Nocita (Jr., Porter Ranch, Calif.) and
David Jackson (Fr., Cypress, Texas) headlined Navy's All-Patriot League award winners with Nocita being selected as the Patriot League Co-Defensive Player of the Year and Jackson was named the Patriot League Rookie of the Year, the league office announced on Tuesday afternoon.
In total, the Midshipmen had seven players selected to the All-League teams, which led all Patriot League programs. This is the second consecutive season Navy has had seven All-League performers, which is second all-time in program history following the Midshipmen's eight honorees in 2013.
This marks the second-straight season Nocita has been voted as the defensive player of the year and he becomes the third individual in program history to win the award twice, along with the second individual to win the award in back-to-back seasons. Brian Steckroth won the award following the 1999 and 2001 seasons while Joseph Greenspan garnered the recognition in 2013 and 2014. Jackson becomes the fourth player in school history to be selected as the Patriot League Rookie of the Year.
Jacob Williams (Jr., Millersville, Md.) earned the honor in 2018, while Derek Vogel was selected as rookie of the year in 2012 and Michael Paisant in 1997.
Nocita was selected to the All-Patriot League First Team for the second-straight season and was joined by Williams and
Tyler Collins (Jr., Crofton, Md.). On the third team, Jackson was one of four Midshipmen on the team with
Baba Kallie (Fr., Coatesville, Pa.),
Toni Adewole (Sr., Clarksburg, Md.) and
Ian Bramblett (Sr., Easley, S.C) also earning Third Team All-Patriot League honors.
Williams joined Nocita as a two-time First Team All-League honoree and the pair have now been named to All-League teams in each of their three seasons with the Midshipmen. Collins and Bramblett both earned their second-straight All-League recognition following second-team honors in 2019 for the duo. This marks the first All-League status for Adewole, Jackson and Kallie.
En route to defensive player of the year honors, Nocita played the full length in each of his five appearances this year for a total of 470 minutes. Along with helping Navy to a 0.80 goals-against average, Nocita tallied a goal in the Midshipmen's come-from-behind win at North Carolina State in the fall. In his career, Nocita has played and started in 39 of Navy's 40 games since joining the squad in 2018 and he also logged 3,583 minutes while chipping in with four goals and two assists during his first three years with the Midshipmen.
Jackson led Navy in scoring during his first year of collegiate soccer on his way to rookie of the year honors. In four appearances, Jackson racked up six points for the Midshipmen behind two goals and two assists. Both of his goals were game-winning tallies as he secured Navy's comeback win at North Carolina State with a first-half goal and then scored the Midshipmen's lone goal against Bucknell in a 1-0 decision. For the season, the freshman finished with seven total shots and five on goal.
Williams appeared in all six games for Navy where he made five starts. During his junior campaign, Williams led the Midshipmen with 13 shots and was tied with Jackson for a team-high five shots on goal. In the regular-season finale, Williams gave Navy a 1-0 lead late in the game against American where the match finished in a 1-1 draw. Williams now has 16 career goals and 36 points in 39 career games for Navy.
Collins joined Nocita on the Navy backline and the Crofton, Md., native started in five of the Midshipmen's six contests where he played all 470 minutes in those matches. Collins helped limit the opposition to just five goals this season along with 48 shots – compared to Navy's 83 – and 18 shots on goal. Collins has made 37 appearances and 36 six starts in his career all coming in the center of the Navy defense where he has played 3,088 minutes.
In his senior season, Bramblett made 13 saves in six starts for a .722 save percentage where his five goals allowed paced him to a 0.80 goals-against average. Bramblett finished in the top five in both career goals-against average and shutouts in school history. His 0.94 goals-against average ranks fourth all-time in program history and after two clean sheets this spring his 13 shutouts are fifth all-time.
Adewole was one of three field players to start all six games this season and he played 532 of a possible 560 minutes this year. In his senior campaign, Adewole scored Navy's game-winning goal in a 2-0 win at Lehigh for his second career game-winning goal. Since joining the Midshipmen for the 2017 campaign, Adewole has played and started in 56 of Navy's 57 matches, playing 4,682 minutes.
During his freshman season, Kallie played in all six of Navy's contests this year, which included starting in the team's final three matches of the regular season. He scored his first collegiate goal in a comeback win against Colgate where he scored the game-tying goal and then forced the Raiders into an own goal for the game-winning score. Kallie finished second on the team with 10 shots and had three shots on target.
Rounding out the major award winners in the league was Loyola's Sam Brown, Justin Ingram and Chase Vosvick for offensive player, midfielder and goalkeeper of the year, respectively. Lafayette's Nick Hazel joined Nocita as co-defensive player of the year while Lafayette head coach Dennis Bohn was voted as the Patriot League Coach of the Year.
Navy finished off its regular season with a record of 4-1-1 and finished tied for second in the Patriot League South Division with seven points.
