Jacobo, Simonetti make for sweep of GPAC weekly honors
The Concordia University Men’s Soccer program has swept conference weekly awards. On Tuesday (Sept. 29), the league named sophomore Moises Jacobo the GPAC/Hauff Mid-America Sports Offensive Player of the Week while freshman Federico Andrea Simonetti was tabbed the GPAC/Hauff Mid-America Sports Defensive Player of the Week. This marks the second-straight week that Jacobo has garnered the offensive award.
A rising star, Jacobo has been on a roll in the goal scoring department. The native of Grand Island, Neb., notched the first hat trick of his career in last week’s 4-1 victory at Dordt. Jacobo added another goal three days later in the 4-0 home win over Northwestern. Only three players in the entire NAIA have scored more goals this season than Jacobo, who has put away five goals in 2020 (11 in his career). Jacobo is the team leader in both goals and assists (three).
On the other end of the field, Andrea Simonetti did not allow a single goal in 165 minutes of action last week at keeper. The native of Crema, Italy, made a combined nine saves and earned credit for his first career shutout in the win over Northwestern. Andrea Simonetti ranks 13th nationally in goals against average (0.270) while sporting a save percentage of .938.
Head Coach Jason Weides’ Bulldogs (4-1, 2-0 GPAC) will return to action this Saturday when they host Dakota Wesleyan (1-2, 0-1 GPAC). Kickoff is set for 8 p.m. CT.
Soenksen voted GPAC Defensive Player of the Week
After playing an instrumental role in a pair of shutout victories, sophomore Grace Soenksen has been named the GPAC/Hauff Mid-America Sports Defensive Player of the Week, as announced on Tuesday (Sept. 29). This marks the first career GPAC weekly award for Soenksen and the first for the Concordia University Women’s Soccer program in 2020.
A product of Lincoln Lutheran High School, Soenksen is in her second season as a starting center back. In that role, Soenksen helped the Bulldogs record clean sheets in GPAC wins last week over Dordt, 1-0, and Northwestern, 2-0. Those two opponents were limited to a combined nine shots. Soenksen also received credit for the game-winning goal versus Northwestern. In that instance, Soenksen headed in a corner kick for the second goal of her career. She was named honorable mention All-GPAC in 2019.
Grace is far from the first Soenksen to wear Bulldog blue. Before her arrival at Concordia, she was preceded by older brothers Tim, Kevin and Gideon and by older sister Esther. Grace became the fifth Soenksen sibling to score a goal as a Bulldog when she found the back of the net last season.
Up next, Soenksen and the Bulldogs (3-1, 3-0 GPAC) will host Dakota Wesleyan (4-0, 2-0 GPAC) at 5:30 p.m. CT on Saturday.
