Darren Howerton of Northborough never leaves the field when the Brown University men's soccer team plays.
From his position in the center of the field, Howerton plays a major role in setting up the attack for the Ivy League champion Bears, whose season ended Wednesday night with a 2-1 double-overtime loss to visiting Old Dominion in the second round of the NCAA Division 1 tournament.
Howerton led Brown (15-1-1) in assists with nine this fall, and his two goals, the first two of a stellar collegiate career, were game-winners, against Fordham and Penn. And he earned All-Ivy honorable mention honors after Brown completed its 7-0 run through the league.
"We're very proud of Darren. He's one of our cornerstones and he's improved in every area of the game," Brown coach Mike Noonan said of his 6-foot, 165-pound junior midfielder.
"He strikes a good ball and he's unbelievably dangerous. He pretty much goes 90 minutes every game."
After being a league all-star in soccer for two seasons at the Bancroft School in Worcester, Howerton transferred to Noble & Greenough in Dedham, where he was a two-time Independent School League all-star and a team captain his senior year. He also played club soccer for the Greater Boston Bolts and FC United.
As a Brown freshman, his six assists tied for the team and Ivy League lead; two of them were on game-winning goals against Boston University and Columbia. He also had five assists as a sophomore - second best on the team.
Raeder, now goalie coach for the Worcester Sharks of the American Hockey League and a scout for the San Jose Sharks, played two professional seasons (1975-76 and 1976-77) with the New England Whalers of the World Hockey Association and also for Team USA at the 1976 Canada Cup.
Raeder also was head coach of Clarkson University and assistant coach at the University of New Hampshire before spending seven seasons with the NHL's Los Angeles Kings as an assistant coach.
O'Malley, who had scored nine goals and two assists in two seasons at Northeastern, is a graduate of Notre Dame Academy in Worcester, where she earned letters in field hockey and track. She is part of an athletic family: Her older brother, Matthew, played football at Brown, and her father, Walter, played football at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
"Michaela adjusted quite well after leaving Boston to come to Ohio," said the Buckeyes' field hockey coach, Anne Wilkinson. "She has grown a lot as a student and a player, but more importantly as a person. She captained our team this year after only being here one year, which says a lot about the respect her teammates have for her."
Yetten, who completed his 29th season at Bentley with a 7-3 mark, was presented with the 2007 Murray Lewis Award by the Boston Chapter of the Eastern Association of Intercollegiate Football Officials, given in recogni tion of contributions to New England football. His record at Bentley is 149-54-1 since the program was elevated from the club level.
Despite missing the final four games with a knee injury, Bernadeau repeated as the Northeast-10 Conference's Offensive Lineman of the Year. He and McNamara were named to the NE-10's All-Conference first team, while Cotto was a second-team selection.
Before he was hurt in the C.W. Post game, Bernadeau had started every game of his collegiate career. The Bentley offense took a serious hit when the 6-foot-4-inch, 305-pound NFL prospect was sidelined. With Bernadeau in the lineup, the Falcons averaged 29.5 points, 23 first downs, and 367 yards per game, but without him, the numbers dipped to 24 points, 14 first downs, and 287 yards.
McNamara also was selected to the ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District 1 College Division Football second team by the College Sports Information Directors of America. He is now on the national ballot for the Academic All-America team, which will be announced this month.
McNamara had a record-setting year kicking the ball for the Falcons, accounting for more than a quarter of the team's scoring with his 73 points and tying the school record for points by a kicker, ranking him fifth in the NE-10. McNamara, who was 14 for 18 in field goals and 31 of 32 in extra-point kicks, broke the Bentley, conference, and New England Division 2 records for field goals in a season, and the school record for career field goals, with 20. He nailed at least one field goal in each game, including a Bentley varsity record 43-yarder against Stonehill. Cotto led the Falcons in both rushing, with 843 yards, and all-purpose yards, averaging 96.8, and recorded four 100-yard rushing games in a five-game span, including a career-best 167 against Assumption.
Alexandra Krieg of Wellesley, a junior at Middlebury College in Vermont, finished third at the NCAA Division 3 Women's Cross-country Championships with a time of 21:23 over the 6-kilometer course at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn. Krieg, the top finisher among New England runners, earned All-America honors.
Jessica Sams of Bellingham, a junior at UMass-Boston, was honored as the ECAC East Goalie of the Week after stopping 44 of 46 shots in a 4-2 victory over Connecticut College. A transfer from Northeastern, Sams won her first two starts this season.
Marvin Pave can be reached at 508-820-4223 or at marvin.pave@rcn.com.
