La Plume, Pa. – Keystone College's men's soccer team enjoyed one of the finest seasons in program history this past fall with an outstanding season that saw the Giants break a number of program records while enjoying regular season and postseason success previously unmatched at the NCAA Division III level.
 
Led by fifth-year head coach Joe Schneck, Keystone posted a 13-5-1 overall record during the 2017 campaign including an impressive 7-1-1 mark in Colonial States Athletic Conference play.  After earning a program-record 22 points in league play, the Giants earned the #2 seed in the CSAC playoffs, locking up a first round bye and a home conference semifinal game for the first time in school history. 
 
The Giants defeated third-seeded Centenary University 3-1 in the semifinal round to advance to the CSAC championship game for the first time in program history.  Keystone traveled to top-seeded Cabrini University in search of its first conference title and NCAA Tournament bid, but dropped a heartbreaking, 1-0 decision to the Cavaliers, who scored on their only shot on goal in an evenly matched final.
 
Keystone's 13 wins this past fall tied for the second-most in program history, trailing only the 2002 squad that posted a 14-3-1 record.  The Giants overall win total was also the most since the program began competing at the NCAA Division III level in 2004 and is level with the 2001 (13-4) and 1988 (13-4-1) Keystone win totals.  The Giants also reached a conference final for the first time since the 2004 team finished as the North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) runner-up.
 
Following the conclusion of the regular season, Keystone garnered a program-best nine year-end awards from the CSAC including winning three of the conference's four major awards.  Jalen Freeman (Westampton, N.J./Rancocas Valley Regional) was named the CSAC Defensive Player of the Year for the second straight year to become the first player in the league to repeat as a Player of the Year selection since 2011-2012.  Carlos Bonilla (Clermont, Fla./East Ridge) was honored as the CSAC Rookie of the Year to become the third Keystone player in the last four years to earn the award while Schneck was selected by his peers as the CSAC Coach of the Year.
 
Freeman, Bonilla, and freshman Khadim Thiam (New York, N.Y./Washington Irving) were all First Team All-CSAC selections while sophomore forward Ibrahim Tounkara (Nazareth, Pa./Nazareth Area) and freshman midfielder Talhah Netherlin (Bethlehem, Pa./Liberty) were named Second Team All-CSAC.  Additionally, senior goalkeeper Steven Heintz, Jr. (Ardsley, Pa./Abington) was picked to the CSAC All-Sportsmanship Team.
 
The awards continued to roll in following the season as a program-record three Giants earned United Soccer Coaches All-Mid-Atlantic Region honors.  Freeman was selected to the Second Team to claim his second-straight All-Region award while Bonilla and Thiam were Third Team honorees.  Keystone was the only team in the region to have multiple All-Region selections without appearing in the NCAA Tournament while Bonilla and Thiam were two of just four freshman to earn All-Region accolades.

The Giants also saw seven players collect CSAC Player of the Week or weekly Honor Roll awards from the conference during the regular season.
 
Keystone outscored its opponents by a 44-26 margin this fall including a 22-7 advantage in league contests.  The Giants scored an average of 2.32 goals per game and yielded 1.37 goals per game average on the season with a 2.44 goals scored to 0.78 goals conceded per game average in conference play.
 
The Giants featured a potent but balanced offense that saw 16 different players record points during the year.  The squad had five players reach double-figures in points, had eight players with at least eight points, and 12 players with at least five points.  15 different players scored at least one goal for Keystone during the year.

This fall, Keystone set program records for points (126) and assists (38) in a season.  Defensively the Giants posted seven shutouts, tied for the most in the NCAA Division III era while ranking second overall behind just the 1988 squad's 10 shutouts.  This year's 1.35 goals-against average was also the second-best mark in school history. 
 
The Giants attempted a program-record 321 shots this fall while Keystone's 44 goals scored this fall are the second most for the program at the NCAA Division III level trailing only the 2004 squad that netted 55 goals.
 
Keystone also posted two of the top-five winning streaks in program history with a seven-game winning streak ranking tops in the NCAA Division III era while a five-game winning streak is the fifth-best in school history.
 
Netherlin and sophomore forward Daniel Zuniga (Lakeland, Fla./McKeel Academy) netted three game-winning goals apiece to sit tied for the second-most in a single season while senior Abreham Kittel (Trumansburg, N.Y./Charles O. Dickerson) finished his career fifth all-time in school history with 18 assists and 10^th overall with 36 points. 
 
Goalkeepers Heintz and Malcom Moreira (Hillside, N.J./St. Benedict Prep) combined for a .774 save percentage, the third best mark in program history.  Moreira recorded four clean sheets while Heintz had three shutouts to rank fifth and sixth overall in program history.  Moreira now ranks third all-time in career shutouts while Heintz closed out his career sixth all-time in shutouts.  The duo also finished with the third and fourth best single-season goals-against averages this fall. 
 
For career marks among goalkeepers who logged at least 1,000 minutes in goal since 2008, Heintz finished his career first in goals-against average (1.13) and second in save percentage (.780) while Moreira ranks first in save percentage (.793) and second in goals-against average (1.24).  The duo also is tied for third all-time with 13 wins each.
 
The 2017 season saw five seniors play their final games in a Keystone uniform as Heintz, Freeman, Kittel, Frank Heter III (Andover, N.J./Newton), and Rolando Rodriguez (Linden, N.J./Linden) wrapped up outstanding four-year careers for the Giants.
 
In addition to the accomplishments listed above, Heter scored the game-winning goal in this fall's CSAC semifinal to send the Giants into the championship game while Rodriguez was the only Keystone player to start every game this past fall and dished out a career-high four assists.
 
This year's senior class led Keystone to three CSAC playoff berths, two CSAC semifinal appearances, and this fall's CSAC runner-up finish.  They also led the Giants to a 40-28-3 overall record during their time with the program including a 21-14-1 record in conference play, the best four-year record for any class in program history.