MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Faulkner picked up tons of hardware Wednesday night at the SSAC Soccer Awards Banquet with Nine all-SSAC honors, highlighted by Gabriel De Queiroz being named the SSAC Coach of the Year and Bernardo Juca claiming three "of the Year" awards along with the Golden Boot. The team also won the Team Sportsmanship award as well as picking up the Regular Season trophy for the first time. 

Coach Gabi won the Coach of the Year for the first time in program history after leading the Eagles to the first conference title since the program's inception in 2004. The Eagles are 16-2 at time of writing and on an 11 match win streak. The program's previous best record for wins in a season was 11, set twice by the head coach since the winter of 2020-21. Faulkner is 58-46-9 under de Queiroz. The team leads the nation in goals and assists this season and has shattered the program's previous record for goals scored in a season and defensively is allowing less than a goal per match for the first time ever at time of writing.

Juca won the Player of the Year, Offensive Player of the Year, Freshman of the Year and the Golden Boot after a historic performance of 17 goals and 13 assists after the SSAC Quarterfinals. The 17 goals is a program best for a season and one off the pre-Gabi era record for a career. His 13 assists is second-best in the NAIA. The freshman from Rio de Janeiro thrived in SSAC play, scoring 13 goals and assisting nine while recording at least one goal contribution in 10 of the 11 matches, including a six match stretch with 11 goals and five assists. He was a two-time SSAC Offensive Player of the Week and won the NAIA National Player of the Week after wins over Xavier and William Carey. His nods are the first of their kind at Faulkner as no previous player has earned an "of the Year" distinction. He obviously also placed on SSAC's First-Team and the All-Freshman team.

Andre Ferreira earned one of the three spots for First-Team All-SSAC goalkeepers with six individual and two combined clean sheets on a .761 save percentage. The Portuguese senior has saved 51 shots for 16 wins. He has won the SSAC and NAIA Defensive Player of the Week twice this season, making three national weekly awards in his career. He is the first Faulkner goalkeeper to win the first-team award after placing second team last season. 

Leo Freire placed on the First-Team for the second time, giving him three All-SSAC honors, joining Antoine Marques as the only player with three such honors. The natural forward who moved to right back last season, leads the nation in assists with 16 assists and added four goals this season. He has 21 goals and 32 assists in his career and has doubled what the previous program record was for career assists this season. He has 14 assists in the last 10 matches. 

Gustavo Nau garnered First-Team All-SSAC honors, captaining the team at centerback. The Blumenau, Brazil native has started all 17 matches played in and has added a goal and an assist in the defense that is holding opponents under one-goal per match. He has been a part of all eight clean sheets as a team. He has played over 1300 minutes and is in the top three field players in minutes. Nau was also named the team's Champions of Character recipient. 

Asaph Silveira picked up his First-Team honors for the second straight season as well with six goals and nine assists this season at time of writing. The senior from Belo Horizonte, Brazil scored what proved to be the regular season title clinching goal in the 11th minute against Andrew College on Oct. 17. He has the most minutes of any forward on the team with just over 1300. 

Pepé Riofrio earned First-Team accolades after 14 goal contributions in SSAC play with seven goals and seven assists. The Quito, Ecuador native had eight goals and nine assists this season, putting him at 10 goals and 19 assists in his career. His assist total is second most in program history. 

Rounding out the First-Team is another repeat placement amongst the SSAC's best in Angel Ugwumba. The striker from Quito, Ecuador has 12 goals and three assists this season with eight goals in the last six matches and 10 in the last eight. He has scored in the last six consecutively. His 25 goals in his career so far ranks third all-time. 

Ugwumba, Freire and Silveira join Jarom Farnsworth (2015 & 2017) as the only Eagles to make the First-Team twice. 

Konsti Witte earned Second-Team honors with nine goals and four assists this season. The Barenburg, Germany native scored seven times and assisted two more in conference play including a hat trick against Point and a three goal contribution game against Andrew to earn SSAC and NAIA Offensive Player of the Week honors. It is his second All-SSAC nod.

José Lucca placed on the Second-Team as a centerback, earning his first All-SSAC honor. The senior from Bauru, Brazil has the second most minutes of field players and has two goals and an assist from the backline that has held teams to less than a goal per game on average this season. Lucca has 57 career appearances for the Eagles with 43 starts in his four years. 

The team earned the Sportsmanship Award, one voted on by opposing teams for their character during competition. 

Faulkner also took care of business in the classroom as 19 Eagles earned All-Academic honors: Matheus Magnusson, Nico Maus, Iago Ramm, Miguel Romero, Antonio Rosário, Asaph Silveira, Pedro Trindade, Angel Ugwumba, Konsti Witte, Ivan Caraballo, Julio Cesar, Diego Cosenza, Leo de Souza, Andre Ferreira, Leo Freire, Bradley Ironside, Juraj Kanuch, Vitor Lote and José Lucca. It is the second most number of student-athletes to achieve the academic honor in the SSAC.