2008 Woodie Awards
Athlete of the Week: mauricio Quintana
Aubrey Gibavic
Issue date: 10/14/04 Section: Sports
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An exemplary player and the third leading scorer in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC), men's soccer captain Mauricio Quintana is giving it all he's got in his senior year.
As a third year player, Quintana, a native of Mexico City, is thrilled by the way the season is going thus far. His team is 9-2-0 (3-0 GNAC record) and he has 11 goals and one assist from his forward position, good enough to make him the team's lead scorer.
"We're having a great season," Quintana said. "We have a good team and a great group of guys."
Still, Quintana is more than a scoring staple on the field; he is a friend and confidant for his teammates off the turf.
"Guys go to him as a leader," second year head coach Jared Scarpaci said. "He's a model player and a model student for all these guys."
Quintana has stepped up as the leader for the Lions with the graduation of standout senior Shaun Mazerall last season. With his impressive scoring and team guidance, he has shaped the leadership role into one of his own.
"He's an intense guy on and off the field. It's fun to watch him play and its fun to play with him," said senior defensive player Eric Siegel.
As second leading scorer last season to Mazerall, Quintana has kept up his reputation of frequent goals and overall enthusiasm.
Quintana attributes much of his success this season to freshman midfielder Christopher Mathias. Mathias and Quintana have been trading goal-for-goal throughout the season, and continually shuffle places in the GNAC's top three scoring list.
"Mathias and I have great chemistry and a close relationship on and off the field," Quintana said.
To categorize their playing styles, Scarpaci thinks of Mathias as the finesse player, while he credits Quintana with a majority of the behind the scene leg work.
"He is a workhorse out there. He's back and forth. He's a very physical player and his breakaway speed is unstoppable at times," Scarpaci said.
Quintana is known to be the Lions' "go-to-guy" and as hard of a worker as you could find. Senior defender Tom Santangelo has played with Quintana for three consecutive years and has great admiration of his hard work and determination.
"In practice he's at the top of the list as far as hard work goes," Santangelo said. "You can't really say anything bad about him."
"It's easy to coach him because rather than coach the position, he has certain jobs and he understands those jobs," Scarpaci said. "It will be a huge loss to the program when we lose him."
As a third year player, Quintana, a native of Mexico City, is thrilled by the way the season is going thus far. His team is 9-2-0 (3-0 GNAC record) and he has 11 goals and one assist from his forward position, good enough to make him the team's lead scorer.
"We're having a great season," Quintana said. "We have a good team and a great group of guys."
Still, Quintana is more than a scoring staple on the field; he is a friend and confidant for his teammates off the turf.
"Guys go to him as a leader," second year head coach Jared Scarpaci said. "He's a model player and a model student for all these guys."
Quintana has stepped up as the leader for the Lions with the graduation of standout senior Shaun Mazerall last season. With his impressive scoring and team guidance, he has shaped the leadership role into one of his own.
"He's an intense guy on and off the field. It's fun to watch him play and its fun to play with him," said senior defensive player Eric Siegel.
As second leading scorer last season to Mazerall, Quintana has kept up his reputation of frequent goals and overall enthusiasm.
Quintana attributes much of his success this season to freshman midfielder Christopher Mathias. Mathias and Quintana have been trading goal-for-goal throughout the season, and continually shuffle places in the GNAC's top three scoring list.
"Mathias and I have great chemistry and a close relationship on and off the field," Quintana said.
To categorize their playing styles, Scarpaci thinks of Mathias as the finesse player, while he credits Quintana with a majority of the behind the scene leg work.
"He is a workhorse out there. He's back and forth. He's a very physical player and his breakaway speed is unstoppable at times," Scarpaci said.
Quintana is known to be the Lions' "go-to-guy" and as hard of a worker as you could find. Senior defender Tom Santangelo has played with Quintana for three consecutive years and has great admiration of his hard work and determination.
"In practice he's at the top of the list as far as hard work goes," Santangelo said. "You can't really say anything bad about him."
"It's easy to coach him because rather than coach the position, he has certain jobs and he understands those jobs," Scarpaci said. "It will be a huge loss to the program when we lose him."