Thursday, December 4, 2014

PORTLAND, Ore. – Nine days after being named the Daktronics 2014 West Region Player of the Year, Simon Fraser senior Jovan Blagojevic earned second team All-American status Wednesday.

The forward led the GNAC in goals with 18 which ranked seventh nationally. The senior helped the Clan win eight of their last nine games after a 3-3-2 start and reach the NCAA tournament.

Blagojevic, who was also named a BennettRank XI second team All-American, ended his GNAC career ranking fifth on the conference all-time points list with 90 and tying for fifth in goals scored with 38.

Seattle Pacific’s Davis Karaica was also named a Daktronics All-American, being placed on the third team.

Karaica, a defender for the Falcons, helped the Falcons win the GNAC championship, earn a No. 1 seed in the tournament and reach the NCAA West Region Championship game. The sophomore was a leader on an SPU defense that ranked fourth in goals-against average and ninth in shutout percentage nationally.

This is the third year in a row at least one member of the Clan men’s soccer team made a Daktronics All-American team and is the first time since 2011 an SPU soccer player was selected.

The GNAC represented two of five Daktronics West Region players to make the All-American teams.

There were seven conference players selected to the West Region team that was released on Nov. 24, headlined by Blagojevic’s Player of the Year honor.

The top finishers in the conference, Seattle Pacific and Northwest Nazarene, each placed three players on the team while Blagojevic was the only representative from Simon Fraser.

ALL-AMERICAN

DAKTRONICS: Second Team – Jovan Blagojevic, Simon Fraser (F, 6-0, Sr., Coquitlam, BC - Centennial); Third Team – Davis Karaica, Seattle Pacific (D, 6-1, So., Snoqualmie, WA – Mount Si).

WEST REGION

DAKTRONICS: First team – *Jovan Blagojevic, Simon Fraser (F, 6-0, Sr., Coquitlam, BC - Centennial); Davis Karaica, Seattle Pacific (D, 6-1, So., Snoqualmie, WA – Mount Si); Stephen MacDonald, Seattle Pacific (F, 6-2, So., Phoenix, AZ – O’Connor); Freddy Razo, Northwest Nazarene (F, 5-10, Sr., Irvine, CA – El Toro); Julio Castillo, Northwest Nazarene (M, 5-7, Jr., Wilmington, CA – Chula Vista). Second Team – Cody Lang, Seattle Pacific (GK, 6-4, So., Spokane, WA – Lewis & Clark); Yannick Petzschke, Northwest Nazarene (D, 6-3, Fr., Hamburg, Germany – Goethe Schule Harburg). *West-Region Player of the Year