ACCIDENT — After making an area-leading 208 saves, an average of 16 per game, Northern senior Wyatt Hull was named area Goalkeeper of the Year by the area’s head coaches.
Hull marks the first Northern player to win the honor and is just the second from outside Allegany County to do so since the award was established in 2010.
“Wyatt Hull, as our lone senior, did an outstanding job this year,” Northern assistant coach Jonathan Winebrenner said. “We had a few lopsided games, and he pulled the team in and held our young team together.
“Always the first to the field for practices. Led our young group into an okay season. A great kid on the field. An awesome kid off the field. He definitely has a future in soccer at the next level.”
The boys soccer awards were selected at a meeting of the area’s head coaches.
Southern’s Jon Price was named Coach of the Year in Monday’s edition of the Times-News, and the Defensive Player of the Year will be announced Thursday.
Northern labored to a 3-9-1 finish with a young roster, but Hull kept the Huskies in games, most notably in a 1-0 loss to Fort Hill in the region playoffs on Oct. 23.
Hull was a team captain and a three-year starter, averaging 18 saves a night over the course of his sophomore and junior years.
“He has great athleticism,” Winebrenner said. “Good instincts on the ball. Commanded the backline. Was a vocal leader on the field and very coachable.”
Hull also scored two goals when he was pulled from the net and moved up to forward for a game.
He is the first Northern player to win a boys soccer award since Dylan McCann won Defensive Player of the Year in 2018.
Other past Husky award winners include Player of the Year: Zac Lipscomb (2008), Elijah Lais (2007, tied with Jared Lopez/Mountain Ridge); Offensive Player of the Year: Austin Evans (2017), Lipscomb (2007), Lais (2006) and Defensive Player of the Year: Eric Wood (2005), Woody Kenner (2000).