AUGUSTA, GA – The Peach Belt Conference has announced the men’s soccer All-Conference team. For the first time in league history, three players were named co-Players of the Year as Young Harris’ Yesin van der Pluijm, Lander’s Tom Marriott and Clayton State’s Geo Rios were tied in the coaches voting. YHC’s Mikkel Goling was named the Freshman of the Year and Mark McKeever the Coach of the Year.

Tom Marriott becomes only the fourth player in PBC history to repeat as the PBC Player of the Year and the first since 2014. A senior from Nottingham, England, he is second in the PBC in both goals and assists and leads the league in points. He is currently ranked fourth in NCAA Division II in points per game and is tied for seventh in goals per game. He is also second in the PBC in game-winning goals. This is the 10th season a Bearcat has been named a PBC Player of the Year with seven different players.

Van der Pluijm is the anchor of a Young Harris defense that has allowed only 12 goals to be scored in 16 games so far this season. YHC leads the PBC and is ranked 12th in NCAA Division II with a 0.735 goals allowed average. The junior from Rotterdam, The Netherlands, has started in 15 of the 16 games and is second on the team in minutes played. The PBC Defender of the Week on Oct. 4, van der Pluijm has two assists on the season, coming in the last two YHC games. He is sixth Mountain Lion to be named a PBC Player of the Year.

Geo Rios leads the PBC with 11 assists on the season and is ranked fifth in NCAA Division II in assists per game. A sophomore from Lawrenceville, Ga., Rios also scored five goals and is ninth in the PBC in points per game. He had two assists in a game twice this season and had a goal and an assist in the same game three times. Now a three-time All-Conference selection, Rios becomes the sixth Laker to be named a PBC Player of the Year.

Mikkel Goling has made an immediate impact in his first season at Young Harris. The midfielder from Copenhagen, Denmark, is second on the team and seventh in the PBC with nine goals scored this year. He added five assists and is seventh in the league in points per game. The PBC Player of the Week on Oct. 11, Goling has three multi-goal games this season along with two game-winning goals. He is the fourth YHC player to be named the Freshman of the Year.

In his 17th season as the Young Harris head coach, Mark McKeever once again has the Mountain Lions at the top of the DII landscape. YHC won their sixth PBC regular-season championship in 2021 with an 11-0-1 overall record and are 15-0-1 overall on the season. YHC started the year unranked in the United Soccer Coaches preseason poll, but quickly began to move up and now enter the postseason as the #1-ranked team in the nation and one of two teams in the country without a loss this year. YHC leads the PBC in scoring offense and scoring defense and are the #1 seed in the NCAA South Super Region poll and this weekend’s PBC Tournament. McKeever earns his third PBC Coach of the Year honor.

The All-Conference team is listed below as selected by the league’s head coaches. Coaches were not permitted to vote for their own players.

2021 PBC Men’s Soccer
All-Conference Team

First Team

Forwards
Matteo Costa, Flagler
Saad Maziane, Young Harris
Max McNulty, Lander
Geo Rios, Clayton State

Midfielders
Marc Birkelund, Flagler
Mikkel Goling, Young Harris
Alexis Iturria, Clayton State
Tom Marriott, Lander

Defenders
Adam Kirkwood, Young Harris
Quinn Thompson, Young Harris
Yesin van der Pluijm, Young Harris

Goalkeeper
Eduardo D’Avino, Young Harris

Second Team

Forwards
Langston Blackstock, Clayton State
Gabriel Campora, North Georgia
Marco Gueli, Lander
Sondre Olsen, Young Harris

Midfielders
Cole Davison, Georgia Southwestern
Val Feeney, Young Harris
Donovan Odier, North Georgia
Kevin Rubaszewski, Lander

Defenders
Mohammed Amine Mahrous, Georgia Southwestern
Christian Ransome, Clayton State
Jervel Tobierre, USC Aiken

Goalkeepers
Theo Blanchon, Clayton State
Mauricio Uribe, Georgia Southwestern

Elite 16 Award
Samuel Maardh, Lander

Select Sport Gold Ball Award (most goals scored)
Matteo Costa, Flagler

Freshman of the Year
Mikkel Goling, Young Harris

co-Players of the Year
Tom Marriott, Lander
Geo Rios, Clayton State
Yesin van der Pluijm, Young Harris

Coach of the Year
Mark McKeever, Young Harris