Richard Bland Places Nine Student-Athletes On All-Region 10 Team | Head Coach Eduardo de Souza Voted Region's Coach of the Year

SOUTH PRINCE GEORGE, Va. -- Richard Bland College has placed a program-record nine student-athletes on the 2017 All-Region X (10) Men's Soccer Team.  Six Statesmen earned All-Region First Team accolades, including sophomores Tomás Fonseca/Torres Vedras, Portugal and Dusan Stankovic/Belgrade, Serbia, along with freshmen Nikola Aleksic/Belgrade, Serbia, Davi Girardi/São Paulo, Brazil, Vandyke Gyau/Alexandria and Uziel Hernandez/The Villages, Florida.  Sophomore Hussein Osman/Charlottesville garnered All-Region Second Team honors, while sophomore Jamie McAvoy/Ayr, Scotland and freshman Umar Mujahid/Meherrin were chosen for the All-Region Honorable Mention Team.  In addition, fourth-year head coach Eduardo de Souza was named the Region 10 Men's Soccer Coach of the Year.

"The All-Region awards are the recognition of hard work and dedication by these individuals," said de Souza. "We are proud and happy for the commitment of these student-athletes to Richard Bland men's soccer. 

"The coach award should be a staff award, because Nick Surkamp and I coach as a unit … recruiting and helping our group function together, and without our players, this wouldn't be possible.  We lost in the final, but we have more to accomplish and we will fight to the end with all of our determination and strength."

Fonseca, a goalkeeper, has started 18 matches and played 1,541 minutes in front of the net with nine shutouts, a 0.82 goals against average and 46 saves for a save percentage of .820 percent.

Stankovic, a midfielder, has started 17 matches while third on the team in scoring with 11 goals and two assists for 24 points.  He is third on the team with three game-winning goals and is a perfect 3-3 on penalty-kick opportunities to lead the squad.

Aleksic, a defender, has started 18 matches with seven assists for seven points.  He has helped lead the team defense to 11 shutouts.

Girardi, a midfielder, has started all 19 matches while leading the team in scoring with a team-best 14 goals and six assists for 34 points.  He has a team-best six game-winning goals.

Gyau, a defender, has started 18 matches with three assists for three points.  He has helped lead the team defense to 11 shutouts.

Hernandez, a forward, has started all 19 matches while second on the team in scoring with 11 goals and a team-best nine assists for 31 points.  He is also second on the team with five game-winning goals.

Osman, a midfielder, has started 17 matches while third on the team in scoring with eight goals and eight assists for 24 points.

McAvoy, a midfielder, has started 18 matches while seventh on the team in scoring with one goal and a team-best nine assists for 11 points.

Mujahid, a forward, has started 16 matches while fifth on the team in scoring with six goals and four assists for 16 points.

Coach de Souza has led Richard Bland to a school record of 17-2 overall, including the regular season Region 10 championship (13-1) and runners-up finish at the Region 10 Tournament.  The Statesmen were nationally-ranked for the first time this season, most recently at No. 14 in last week's poll.  Richard Bland has advanced to the NJCAA Division I Southeast District Tournament for the second-straight year, and will play on November 3-4 in Louisburg, North Carolina.  The Statesmen have attained three consecutive 10-win seasons under the guidance of de Souza (44-30-5).

Louisburg College sophomore forward James Fergany, who scored 22 goals with four assists for 48 points this season, was selected as the Region 10 Player of the Year.