2018 Northeast Conference Men's Soccer Award Winners

BROOKLYN, N.Y. - The LIU Brooklyn men's soccer team earned numerous awards at the league's annual banquet Thursday night preceding the tournament. Northeast Conference regular season champion LIU Brooklyn took home three of the four major honors, which were announced at the annual pre-tournament banquet hosted this year by the top-seeded Blackbirds. In a post-season poll of the league's coaches, sophomore Erik Johansson was named the NEC Defensive Player of the Year, freshman Sam Ilin was named the NEC Rookie of the Year, and head coach TJ Kostecky and his staff were named the NEC Coaching Staff of the Year.

Kostecky and his staff of Bradley Johnson, Patrick Gray and Bernie Hernando, earn the honor from their peers for the first time since 2015, while Ilin is the first Blackbird to win Rookie of the Year since his teammate Rasmus Hansen did so in 2015. And Johansson becomes the first Blackbird ever to win the Defensive Player of the Year honor.

Additionally, the Blackbirds had a league-best seven athletes recognized on the All-NEC teams. Seniors Rasmus Hansen and Filip Nordström, junior Marius Koss and sophomore Fredrik Mathisen earned first team All-NEC honors, while Ilin was named second team All-NEC, and both Ilin and classmate Huib Achterkamp were named to the NEC's All-Rookie team.

Johansson anchored a stout LIU defense that surrendered just seven goals in conference play en-route to the NEC regular season crown. The Blackbirds ranked third on the NEC leaderboard in goals against average (1.21), while recording four shutouts. The sophomore defender from Angelhom, Sweden played in all of LIU Brooklyn's 17 games and recorded an assist in a win over Mount St. Mary's. Johansson, who was tabbed to the NEC All-Rookie team as a freshman, is the first Blackbird to win the NEC Defensive Player of the Year award.
 
The fifth NEC Rookie of the Year award honoree in LIU Brooklyn history, Ilin made an immediate impact between the pipes. Winning his first six matches after taking over as the full-time starter in late September, the local product finished with an 8-3 record during the regular season. He leads the conference in save percentage (.806), ranks second with a 1.01 goals against average and sits fourth with four shutouts. Ilin joined Dan DeOliveira (1987), Carlos Bravo (1988), Paul Schenider (1994), Rafael Solano (1997) and current teammate Rasmus Hansen (2015) as winners of this award.  
 
Kostecky has now led LIU to two NEC regular season titles in the last four years, with the veteran head coach and his assistants earning NEC Coaching Staff of the Year honors on both occasions. Under Kostecky, the Blackbirds have finished with double-digit wins in three of the last four seasons and are gunning for their third NEC title in his tenure. As a team, LIU Brooklyn reeled off nine straight wins at one point and finished 6-2 in conference play. The Blackbirds rank second in the NEC in goals per game (1.59) and third in goals against average (1.21) heading into the postseason.

LIU Brooklyn led the way with five All-NEC first team selections and seven All-NEC honorees overall.

LIU senior forward Rasmus Hansen made his fourth consecutive appearance on the All-NEC first team. The 2017 NEC Player of the Year finished the regular season with three game-winners and is tied for the team lead with five tallies on the year to raise his career total to 33 goals. 
 
It was an LIU Brooklyn sweep on the first team All-NEC back line with Johansson joined by senior Filip Nordström and junior Marius Koss. Making his second first team appearance, Nordström also provided offensive punch with eight assists, which leads the NEC and ranks in the top-20 nationally. LIU's fifth first team honoree was sophomore midfielder Fredrik Mathisen, a two-time NEC Player of the Week this season who heads into the NEC Tournament as the team leader in goals (5) and points (14). And Ilin was one of three rookies voted to the All-NEC second team.

Also at the banquet Thursday night, the Blackbirds were awarded the 2018 regular season championship trophy. Up next, top-seeded LIU takes on No. 4 seed Fairleigh Dickinson in the NEC tournament semifinals, Friday, November 9 at 2 p.m. on LIU Field.