Ashbrook's Villa heads all-conference soccer team

After leading Ashbrook to some of its best soccer in school history, Juan Villa is going out with his league’s top award.

The senior midfielder was named Big South 3A Conference player of the year by the league’s coaches, capping a career in which he helped the Green Wave win three consecutive Big South titles.

“Juan is just a good natural soccer player, a leader, a good teammate and a good student,” Ashbrook coach Joel Webb said. “He’s a student-athlete first, and he’s meant a lot to Ashbrook the past four years.”

Villa finished the season with team highs of 22 goals and 18 assists. In the playoffs, he recorded a hat trick in a 7-0 first-round win against North Buncombe, then scored the Green Wave’s only goal in a 2-1 second-round loss to Hickory, which was still alive in the fourth round Saturday.

“He doesn’t just stand around and wait on the ball,” Webb said. “He works hard to find the space, and once he does, he takes advantage of it.”

Webb was named Big South coach of the year by his peers after guiding Ashbrook to a 16-4-4 record, including a 12-0 mark in Big South action. The Green Wave ran the table in the conference for a third straight season, running its league winning streak to a Big South-record 37 matches.

Joining Villa on the 24-player all-conference team were Ashbrook teammates Santiago Aspirilla, Ronnie Hernandez, Daniel Nelli, Nick Fuller, Josh Cloyd and Marcke Del Castillo.

Runner-up Forestview placed five on the all-conference team: Cody Bridges, David Gibbons, Hunter Ballard, Jonathan “Boo” Davis and Colden Beert.

Third-place Hunter Huss (Kyndal Tanner, Seth Jones and Cody Jones) and fourth-place South Point (Ben Dodson, Cameron Boyd and Hathum Hamam) earned three spots each.

The rest of the team included Jake Kennedy and Ethan Fite of Crest; Leon Hurtado, Jon Cabe and Dakota Null of North Gaston; and Kings Mountain’s Adam Bridges.

Phillip Gardner: 704-869-1843; twitter.com/gazettephil

All-Big South 3A Conference soccer team

Ashbrook — Juan Villa, Sr.; Santiago Aspirilla, Sr.; Ronnie Hernandez, Jr.; Daniel Nelli, Jr.; Nick Fuller, Jr.

Forestview — Cody Bridges, Sr.; David Gibbons, Jr.; Hunter Ballard, Jr.; Jonathan “Boo” Davis, Jr.

Hunter Huss — Kyndal Tanner, Jr.; Seth Jones, Fr.; Cody Jones, Jr.

South Point — Ben Dodson, Sr.; Cameron Boyd, Sr.; Hathum Hamam, Sr.

Crest — Jake Kennedy, Sr.; Ethan Fite, Jr.

North Gaston — Leon Hurtado, Jr.; Jon Cabe, Jr.

Kings Mountain — Adam Bridges, Sr.

At-large — Dakota Null, North Gaston, Jr.; Josh Cloyd, Ashbrook, Jr.; Marcke Del Castillo, Ashbrook, Sr.; Colden Beert, Forestview, Jr.

Player of the year — Juan Villa, Ashbrook, Sr.

Coach of the year — Joel Webb, Ashbrook