Boys Soccer: NH All-Star Honors Announced

Boys Soccer: NH All-Star Honors Announced
By: Kristy Booher Angelo, Associate Athletic Director
For More Info: booherk@gilmour.org 

The News-Herald recently announced its 2019 Boys Soccer All-Stars, which span all OHSAA Divisions from teams in the newspaper's coverage area. The Gilmour Academy varsity boys soccer team had two of its players among the 58 honorees, including Bowdan Slabe '20 (pictured on the left), who was a third-team selection, and Matt Beck '21 (pictured on the right), who was an honorable mention pick. 

Slabe was the team's leading scorer this season with 16 goals and three assists. 

When asked about Slabe's contributions this season, head coach Joe Ciuni '77 spoke very highly of the starter, "In my 12 years of coaching Gilmour soccer, I have never had a player score 16 goals. My coaching style is very defensive and we keep the games close. I also do not let any player feast on weak teams just to score goals. So Bowdan was a terrific goal scorer this year and he scored goals in all of our big games. He played very comfortably with his back to the goal, checking back to his teammates for give-and-go passes as he worked his way to the goal and when he got there he knew how to finish. He was also our most dangerous player out of the air as he scored a few head ball goals this year."

As for Beck, Coach Ciuni was very complimentary of the starting keeper's net-tending skills. "Matt Beck was our most valuable defensive player," said Ciuni. "He made up for a lot of mistakes in the back with tremendous saves. Matt had 96 saves this year and surrendered 26 goals. Matt recorded six shutout victories. He took all of our goal kicks and set-piece free kicks in the defensive third of the field. He was a leader in the back and played more minutes than any other player on the team."

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