SMCM’s Lucas Evans Named United East Offensive Player

ST. MARY’S CITY — Lucas Evans picked the right week to have the best stretch of his college career. The St. Mary’s College of Maryland senior forward was named the United East Conference men’s soccer Offensive Player of the Week on Oct. 26, his first weekly honor from the league, after powering the Seahawks through a 2-0 final week of the regular season.

Evans, a Greenbelt native who played high school soccer at South River in Edgewater, had three goals, including a game-winner, and two assists in the two games, according to SMCM Athletics. The award comes days before St. Mary’s opens the conference tournament at home.

Most of the damage came Oct. 21 at Penn State Berks, where Evans scored all three of his goals, including the game-winner, and added an assist in a 5-0 shutout. He scored three times in about five minutes in that game. Three days later at Cairn University, he assisted on the game-winning goal in a 3-1 victory, a win that clinched a home playoff game and gave head coach Oliver his 150th win.

The 6-foot-2 forward now sits among the United East leaders in several categories:

Evans is the second Seahawk to win the league’s weekly offensive award this season. Junior forward Nick Haney took the honor for the week of Sept. 7, the first of the season. The other winners since then came from Cairn, Keystone, Penn State Abington (twice), Lancaster Bible and Penn State Harrisburg.

St. Mary’s enters the postseason at 8-8-1 and will host No. 5 seed Penn College (8-5-4) in a United East Men’s Soccer Tournament quarterfinal at 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 31, at Jamie L. Roberts Stadium in St. Mary’s City. The teams met on Senior Day Oct. 17 and played to a scoreless draw, so Saturday’s game will hinge on whether the Seahawks’ attack, with Evans leading it, can break through against a defense that has already shut it out once.