KANSAS CITY, Mo. – On Monday evening, the United Soccer Coaches awarded
Matt McDonald the highest athletic honor an individual can achieve in Division III men's soccer, naming him the 2022 National Player of the Year.
McDonald becomes the 11th Falcon in Messiah men's soccer history to be named the National Player of the year with all 11 honors coming in the last 20 seasons. Overall, McDonald becomes the 22nd Messiah student-athlete to be named the National Player of the Year in their respective sport.
"When I think about
Matt McDonald, I think about his development as a person and a player," said Messiah men's soccer head coach
Brad McCarty. "He's grown and matured a lot. Last year as a junior, he didn't even begin the season as a starter. But he developed last year and got better at being able to keep and receive the ball as a target. But wasn't an amazing goal scorer."
McDonald started his first career game on Sept. 29, 2021, eight games into his junior season. He finished the 2021 season as a First Team All-MAC Commonwealth after scoring eight goals and adding four assists. The 2022 season started a little different for McDonald, a two-goal performance against the No. 3 Washington and Lee Generals in the season opener started a goal scoring barrage in his senior campaign. In the first six games of the season, McDonald had already equaled his goal output from the 2021 season, scoring eight goals.
"One of the things he did this year, was differentiate between shooting a ball and finishing a ball," said McCarty of his senior forward. "Matt as an underclassman, if he had a goal scoring opportunity, would just crush it, kick it as hard as he could. It would spray all over. Last spring, this summer, and this fall, he started finding ways to be a finisher around the net."
During the 2022 season, McDonald tied for the Division III lead with 23 goals and 52 points. He scored consistently. Starting with that two-goal performance at Washington and Lee, McDonald netted at least one goal in his first six games of the season. In total, McDonald scored in 17 of Messiah's 22 goals. He finished the year with 23 goals and six assists with five of his helpers coming in the final nine games of the year, including two in the MAC Commonwealth Tournament. His 23 goals on the season ties him with Chris Tassy (1995) for seventh in the Messiah men's soccer record book for goals in a single season. His 52 points knot him with Todd Suessmuth (1988) and Jeremy Payne (2014) for the seventh-most points in a Messiah men's soccer season.
"What's significant about what Matt did this year, was score 23 goals without a hat trick," said McCarty of McDonald's consistency. "He scored against a lot of the really good teams that we played and scored in lots of different ways.
"If you watch Matt play, what jumps out at you is his sheer pace and athleticism. That allowed him to generate a lot of goals for himself and teammates based on defensive pressure. Pressuring goal keepers and center backs, balls would get coughed up and goal occurred. It wasn't like just kick it far and Matt with run onto it, although that happened sometimes, he found a number of other creative ways to find the back of the net."
McDonald certainly found a number of ways to score this season. He often times used his speed to slip behind defensive lines in a blink of an eye. Other times, he bullied defenders off the ball before ripping a shot past an unexpecting keeper. Maybe his favorite way to score was off a one-touch finish from a well-weighted pass from a teammate. As Coach McCarty mentions, McDonald's touch and finesse have matured over the last year. An emerging trademark of his finishing touch comes in the form of a basketball finger-roll celebration, a direct result of a conversation with coach on their international trip.
"We were in Colombia last spring, playing small-sided games with small goals. (Matt) was just shooting the ball all over the place, not scoring, just crushing it. The next day before a game, I said, 'Matt you're a basketball player, when you drive for a layup do you need power or finesse?' He says 'finesse'. I said 'No! You need both, power to drive the lane, but right at the last second you need finesse to finish. You have an amazing amount of power, you need to find a little finesse around the net.' That's when he started scoring and doing the finger roll celebration."
It's a celebration that Falcon fans have grown accustom to seeing and defenders have tried their hardest to stop, a difficult task given his abilities as a player.
"The only other recent Messiah men's soccer player you would equate him to is Nick West," said coach McCarty when reflecting on McDonald's 2022 season. "Just his sheer pace, athleticism, bite, and toughness certainly makes for an unnerving experience for opposing center backs."
In addition to his National Player of the Year honor, McDonald was named a First Team All-American, First Team All-Region, First Team All-MAC Commonwealth, and the MAC Commonwealth Offensive Player of the Year. McDonald is expected to use his fifth year of eligibility in the fall of 2023 after the COVID pandemic wiped away his sophomore season in 2020.
