Westfield/Brocton’s Scriven earns Defensive Player of the Year award
CCAA Central honors its best
All year long in the CCAA II Central boys soccer division, the Maple Grove Red Dragons and the Westfield/Brocton Wolverines battled for supremacy. The rivalry even carried into the Sectional playoffs, as Maple Grove capitalized on its third shot at the Wolverines to hand the division winners their one and only loss of the season.
With how dominant both teams were, it comes as no surprise that the league’s highest honors are full of Red Dragons and Wolverines.
Westfield/Brocton’s Dylan Scriven won CCAA II Central Defensive Player of the Year, while first-year Westfield/Brocton coach Jared Winder won CCAA II Central Coach of the Year in the 2019 Boys Soccer All-Stars and Awards recently released. Maple Grove’s leading scorer Caleb Foley won the league’s Offensive Player of the Year award.
Scriven was a consistent force on the talented back line of the Wolverines’, which led the league with only three goals allowed throughout the regular season. Scriven’s senior leadership and reliability on and off the field as a senior co-captain helped ease the load on Winder as a first-year coach. Winder’s selection as Coach of the Year was a no-brainer, as his first season at the helm of the Wolverines finished with a perfect 16-0-0 record, a division title and a No. 1 seed in the postseason. The Wolverines only trailed in one game all regular season, for less than one half of play, against North Collins.
Foley was Maple Grove’s standout once again as a senior, racking up 22 goals on the way to a Section VI, Class C championship. His go-ahead goal against Westfield/Brocton in the Sectional semifinals was the first goal in a game the Red Dragons never trailed in. Maple Grove scored a league-leading 74 goals in the regular season, with only a pair of 1-0 losses to the Wolverines standing in the way of a perfect record for the Red Dragons.
Scriven was far from the only Wolverines standout honored by the league this season. Senior co-captain Nathan Culbreth joined Scriven on the First Team All-Stars, as did senior Jason Almeter and sophomore Darien Swanson. Culbreth tallied 11 goals and seven assists on the season, highlighted by a stellar free kick goal in Westfield/Brocton’s 1-0 postseason win over Portville in the final game of his career at the NorthLake Soccer Complex.
Almeter, a forward, scored a team-high 14 goals this season, along with six assists for the Wolverines. Swanson had four goals and a team-high 12 assists from the midfield position, highlighted by an assist on a goal by Josh Heim in the Wolverines’ second 1-0 victory over Maple Grove to clinch the division title and a perfect regular season.
Heim was one of four Wolverines selected to the Second Team All-Stars, along with Isaac Caballero, Connor Dispense and senior goalkeeper Mike Johnson. Heim, a junior, tallied 10 goals and 11 assists, including the clinching tally to solidify the perfect season. Caballero, a senior, and Dispense, a junior, joined Scriven on the league’s top defensive unit. Behind them was Johnson, a senior co-captain, who was somehow left off the First Team All-Stars despite only allowing three goals all season, with 13 shutouts in the 16-0-0 regular season for the Wolverines. Also for the Wolverines, Elber Lopez-Hernandez, Cole Holland and Gabe Morello all earned Honorable Mention.
Joining Foley on the First Team All-Stars from Maple Grove were goalkeeper Sam Cummings and midfielder Nick Golando. On the Second Team All-Stars were junior Tristan Spillane, sophomore Cam Crist and junior Adam Marsh. Senior Kevin Ruhlman, juniors Elias Aki and Brendan Hirliman, and sophomore RJ Helt made Honorable Mention for the Red Dragons.
The rest of the division’s All-Stars are as follows:
CCAA II Central 2019 Boys Soccer All-Stars and Awards
First Team
Darien Swanson, Westfield/Brocton, soph.
Nathan Culbreth, Westfield/Brocton, senior
Dylan Scriven, Westfield/Brocton, senior
Jason Almeter, Westfield/Brocton, senior
Sam Cummings, Maple Grove, soph.
Nick Golando, Maple Grove, junior
Caleb Foley, Maple Grove, senior
Christian Loretto, North Collins, senior
Alex Teijeira, North Collins, junior
Darren Jimenez, Silver Creek/Forestville, senior
Jeremy Wilcox Silver Creek/Forestville, senior
Zack Carr, Frewsburg, freshman
Calob Carr, Frewsburg, senior
Evan Frontuto, Pine Valley, junior
Second Team
Isaac Caballero, Westfield/Brocton, senior
Josh Heim, Westfield/Brocton, junior
Michael Johnson, Westfield/Brocton, senior
Connor Dispense, Westfield/Brocton, junior
Adam Marsh, Maple Grove, junior
Cam Crist, Maple Grove, soph.
Tristan Spillane, Maple Grove, junior
Mitchell Warsaw, North Collins, junior
Tony Puckhaber, North Collins, junior
Spencer Harford, Silver Creek/Forestville, senior
Giovanni Pacifici, Silver Creek/Forestville, senior
Daven Wolfe, Frewsburg, junior
Trent Bjork, Frewsburg, soph.
Jared Nobles, Pine Valley, senior
Honorable Mention
Elber Lopez-Hernandez, Westfield/Brocton, junior
Cole Holland, Westfield/Brocton, soph.
Gabe Morello, Westfield/Brocton, senior
Brendan Hirliman, Maple Grove, junior
Elias Aki, Maple Grove, junior
Kevin Ruhlman, Maple Grove, senior
RJ Helt, Maple Grove, soph.
Brody Klawinski, North Collins, junior
Dominic Fricano, North Collins, junior
Chris VanCheri, Silver Creek/Forestville, senior
Don Gula, Silver Creek/Forestville, senior
Nick Emily, Frewsburg, senior
Nick Mason, Frewsburg, senior
Gavin Swanson, Frewsburg, senior
Cameron Hayes, Pine Valley, junior
Owen Ward, Pine Valley, soph.
CCAA II Central Sportsmanship Team: Pine Valley; Player: Jared Nobles
CCAA II Central Referee of the Year: Rosario Parisi
CCAA II Central Coach of the Year: Jared Winder, Westfield/Brocton
CCAA II Central Offensive Player of the Year: Caleb Foley, Maple Grove
CCAA II Central Defensive Player of the Year: Dylan Scriven, Westfield/Brocton