MAC Men's Soccer Player of the Week
Luke McCormick, WVU
Midfielder, Junior, Derby, England
Luke McCormick helped the Mountaineers to a pair of top-20 victories last week. He opened the scoring with a 21st-minute goal in a 2-1 win over No. 3 Pitt on Monday, before tallying the first assist of the night in WVU's 3-1 victory over No. 17 Penn State on Friday. For the week, he led the squad with five shot attempts, two of them on goal. West Virginia took down back-to-back ranked opponents for the first time since October 1998, and the squad is 3-0 for the first time since 2017.
Other Nominees
Diogo Pacheco, Akron
Forward, Senior, Lisbon, Portugal
Akron senior Diogo Pacheco turned in a strong week for the Zips registering a team-high four assists to spark Akron to a dramatic 2-1 victory at Michigan State on Monday, Aug. 30, as well as a 3-0 triumph past Robert Morris on Friday, Sept. 3. The Zips trailed the Spartans 1-0 before Pacheco narrowly missed leveling the game at one at the 70:17 mark as his strike from the center of the box was inches off finding the corner of the net off passes from freshmen Dyson Clapier and Wan Kuzri Wan Kamal. Pacheco’s pass to freshman Jason Shokalook at the 78:26 mark leveled the game at one. Pacheco then added his second assist of the night on Wan Kuzri Wan Kamal’s game-winning goal with 25 seconds remaining in regulation. He finished the game with a team-high three shots. Locked in scoreless first half with Robert Morris, Pacheco started a scoring play that went to freshman Ryan Kingsford before sophomore Ryan Fitzgerald scored what proved to be the game-winning goal at the 51:39 mark. He later added his second consecutive game with two assists with a helper on Will Jackson’s goal in the 74th minute (73:32). On the season, he owns team-high marks in assists (4) and points (6) and is third in shots (7) and has scored in each of Akron’s three matches this season.
Matthew Fearnley, Georgia State
Midfielder, Senior, Ashton-in-Makerfield, England
Senior Matthew Fearnley scored the game-winning goal in Georgia State's 2-1 win over USC Upstate on Saturday night. The senior, who led the team with five goals in just 13 matches last season, gave the Panthers a 2-0 lead in the 57th minute. The win was the second-straight road victory for the Panthers as GSU improved to 2-1 on the season.
Sergi Martinez, Bowling Green
Midfielder, Senior, Barcelona, Spain (Eugeni Xammar)
Bowling Green’s Sergi Martinez had a three-point night in the Falcons’ lone match of the week, a 3-0 win at Cleveland State on Friday evening. Martinez, a Hartford transfer in his first season with BGSU, had the lone assist on the Falcons’ first goal of the night, which proved to be the game-winner. He received a pass, won a challenge and slid the ball between a pair of defenders to Alberto Anaya, who gave BG the lead for good with just over 15 minutes gone. Then, early in the second half, Martinez scored his first goal as a Falcon, taking a pass in the box and beating the goalkeeper with a shot that found the far-side netting. Martinez now has four points, tying him for the team lead, in three games as a Falcon.
