Behrend soccer players meet Tim Howard in Los Angeles
Penn State Behrend men’s soccer players Evan Augustine and Chris Ralph were named to the NSCAA Division III All America second team, and they traveled to Los Angeles to receive their award.
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Augustine, a senior centerback, and Ralph, a freshman goalkeeper, worked together over the season to give Behrend a 0.57 goals against average, which was good enough for ninth best in Division III soccer. Although Augustine and Ralph were given the individual awards of making the All American team, their success was based upon each other. Ralph stated, “Evan is the best centerback I've ever had in front of me. He does a great job of leading the defense and made my job easy so many times. Any goalkeeper knows how valuable that is to a team's success on defense… I feel the award could have been given to the Behrend defense as a whole. A lot of the stats that I am given credit for like the .62 GAA belong to all defensive players.”
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To finish off a career with an AMCC championship, and the award of All American was very special for Augustine. He stated, “I can’t explain how honored and thankful I am! I never imagined nor dreamed of receiving an award like this. From the start of the season, all I wanted to do was to end my career with a bang and this was a perfect way to do it. It means that much more to me that it was my senior year.” However on the other end of the spectrum, Ralph is was named an All American as a freshman. He said that he now has an expectation of how he should impact the team each year, not necessarily earn the award again.
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The Behrend athletics office flew the athletes to LA so that they could receive their awards at the NSCAA All-America Luncheon. While there, the athletes were able to experience the city the best that they could. Augustine kicked off his trip by seeing a Los Angeles Clippers game at the Staples Center, and Ralph went to the MLS SuperDraft. Chris Ralph got the opportunity to attend the draft because his friend was among the players that got drafted. He stated, “It was a really cool experience cause I got sit on the floor with all of the draftees and support Francis[his friend]. The environment was so intense watching the team managers negotiating and then announcing the next draft pick.”
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While at the luncheon, Ralph and Augustine were fortunate enough to see one of the best US soccer players of all time, Tim Howard. Evan stated, “As soon as we got the chance, we decided to walk over to his table and ask him for a quick picture. Thankfully, he was more than willing to take a photo and also sign a couple autographs for us.” Meeting Tim Howard meant even more to goalkeeper Chris Ralph because Howard is also a goalkeeper. “As for a lot of other goalkeepers, he's one of the most inspiring people to me and definitely my favorite soccer player. It was one of the best moments of the trip for me.”
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The trip was a success for these two athletes, after a successful season for Behrend soccer. Chris and Evan left LA feeling thankful for the opportunity provided by head coach Perritano and athletic director Brian Streeter.
