ORLANDO – On the heels of the team’s third 10-plus-win season under head coach Scott Calabrese, the No. 12 UCF men’s soccer team saw four Knights recognized by the United Soccer Coaches’ Division I All-Region awards as announced by the organization Tuesday morning.
Forward Lucca Dourado and defender Zane Bubb were tabbed to the All-Southeast Region First Team, defender Anderson Rosa was selected to the All-Southeast Region Second Team, and midfielder AJ Seals rounded out UCF’s selections with an All-Southeast Region Third Team honor.
Dourado’s selection represents the third consecutive season in which the veteran has been tabbed to an All-Region team, and the first time he has been honored with a selection to an All-Region First Team. The forward appeared in a season-high-tying 16 matches for the Knights in 2023, starting each.
He scored nine goals and added a season-high three assists en route to recording his third consecutive 20-plus-point campaign and recorded single-season career-bests in shot attempts (56) and shots on goal (22), while notching a pair of multi-goal matches and three game-winning scores.
Dourado in 2023 also became the seventh player in program history to eclipse the 30-goal mark in a Knights uniform and concluded the season in sixth place on the UCF all-time goals scored list (37) and seventh place on the all-time points list (80).
In addition to his All-Southeast Region First Team Selection, Dourado also earned Sun Belt All-Conference First Team and Sun Belt Preseason All-Conference First Team honors in 2023.
Bubb joins Dourado on the All-Southeast Region First Team, representing the first All-Region award in the defender’s six-year playing career. Like Dourado, Bubb also tied his previous season-high with 16 appearances this season, including 14 starts.
The Jacksonville, Florida, native recorded his second career multi-goal season in 2023, and his first since the 2019-20 slate with North Florida. He also registered at least four shot attempts and nine shots on goal in a single season for the second time in his career.
Bubb scored a key game-tying goal against the then-No. 4 West Virginia Mountaineers in the 34th minute, a crucial score that helped lift the Knights to a 2-2 draw Sept. 15. He netted his second score in the 65th minute at Georgia State Oct. 27, marking the first game-winning goal of his career in UCF’s 3-2 victory.
Bubb also became the first Knight to earn a Sun Belt Conference weekly award with his selection as the conference’s week two Defensive Player of the Week for his efforts in the Knights’ 3-1 win over the NC State Wolfpack Sept. 1.
Rosa earns a selection to the All-Region squad for the second straight season, and the first on an All-Region Second Team after he was a Third Team pick a year ago. The defender paced the Knights in time on the pitch this fall, starting each of UCF’s 16 matches and playing 1,458 of the team’s 1,460 total minutes while also running his streak of consecutive starts to begin his collegiate career to 60 spanning his first four seasons.
Rosa recorded his first collegiate multi-goal season in 2023, scoring a season-high three goals and adding one assist to produce a season-high seven points in his 16 starts, and he also recorded single-season career bests in shot attempts (18), shots on goal (5), penalty kick goals (1) and game-winning goals (1).
The Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, native was given the first penalty kick opportunity of his career against Brown Sept. 9 and didn’t miss, scoring his first goal of the year and ensuring that he would have at least one goal scored in each of his first four collegiate seasons.
Rosa made his second goal of the season count as well, scoring in the 66th minute of UCF’s eventual 3-2 win at South Carolina Oct. 22 to record his first career game-winning goal, and he also assisted Dourado’s goal in the 65th minute of the match to register his first collegiate three-point match. Rosa would also score the Knights’ lone goal in the team’s 2-1 loss to South Carolina in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament Quarterfinal Nov. 5.
Seals, like Bubb, earns a selection to an All-Region team for the first time in his collegiate career after joining Dourado, Rosa and Robbie Soronellas as the fourth Knight to start each of UCF’s 16 matches. Seals trailed only Rosa in total minutes played as well, totaling 1,447 on the season.
The midfielder scored the first goal of his collegiate career in UCF’s win at Georgia State Oct. 27 and added four more assists throughout the season to set single-season career-bests in assists (4), points (6), shot attempts (7) and shots on goal (3). His goal against the Panthers proved crucial in the Knights’ 3-2 victory, having scored in the 23rd minute to give his team a 1-0 lead at the time.
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