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Lakers place four on All-Peach Belt Conference Team
for men’s soccer
Rall, Crooks,
Lara, Habtom represent Clayton State as All-Conference selections
 AUGUSTA,
Ga. --- OCTOBER 26, 2006 --- The Peach Belt Conference relea sed
its 2006 All-Conference team for men’s soccer on Thursday, and the
Clayton State Lakers placed four players on the All-Conference team.
Selected for the All-Peach Belt team for the Lakers were defender
Andre Rall, forward Kevin Crooks and midfielders Johnny Lara and
Hailab Habtom. Clayton State joined Lander and USC-Upstate as the
three teams that placed four players on the All-Peach Belt team. The
team was selected by the votes submitted by the Peach Belt men’s
soccer head coaches.
“I’m very happy for these players, especially Andre and Kevin as
seniors,” said Clayton State head coach Pete Petersen. “The team was
very evenly spread out, so get four players selected is tremendous.”
For Rall, Crooks and Lara, it was the second time the trio was
selected All-Peach Belt, while Habtom was selected for the first
time. All four played key roles in pacing Clayton State to its
second straight Peach Belt Conference regular season title.
A 6-foot-3, 195-pound senior from Johannesburg, South Africa, Rall
overcame two seasons of injuries to return to form as the anchor of
the Laker defense. He was previously both an All-Peach Belt and
All-Southeast Region selection as a freshman in 2003, and was also
the Peach Belt Freshman of the Year that season.
For the second straight season, Crooks was the offensive force up
front for the Lakers. The 6-2, 217-pound senior from Trincity,
Trinidad, is tied for the Claytn
State lead in goals with nine, plus three assists for 21 points. He started out the
season slowly, but finished with a bang, scoring six goals in the
final four regular season games.
Twice, Crooks scored game-winning goals in overtime and recorded a
hat trick against Francis Marion.
Lara, a 5-10,
148-pound sophomore from Lawrenceville, Ga., was a steady,
consistent contributor in the Clayton State midfield. He currently
has one goal and five assist for seven points. Lara is currently
second on the Lakers in assists.
A 6-0, 150-pound junior from Spanga, Sweden, Habtom transferred to
Clayton State this season from Tyler Junior College in Texas, and
his impact was immediately felt. Habt om leads the Peach Belt Conference in assists with 11, and also
ranked 10th in the nation in assists. In addition, he’s
tied for the team lead in goals scored with Crooks with nine.
Habtom recorded a hat trick on Wednesday in the Peach Belt
Conference quarterfinals against Francis Marion.
Clayton State (10-8), seeded second, plays USC-Aiken on Friday at
2:30 p.m. in the semifinals of the 2006 Peach Belt Conference
Tournament at Lander. |
