Nov. 3, 2017
ROSEMONT, Ill. - Freshman Ethan Beckford (Manchester, England) was unanimously named to the Big Ten All-Freshman Team as announced by the conference office Friday, Nov. 3.
In his first season donning the Blue and White, Beckford paced the Nittany Lions with 11 points that included five goals and one assist in the regular season. The Manchester, England native found his stride midway through the season when he scored his first career goal against No. 20 Michigan. Beckford followed it up with a last second goal against Pittsburgh to send the match into overtime for Penn State.
The 5'11" forward continued to impress for the Nittany Lions when he was the first men's soccer student-athlete to have a two-goal game since Connor Maloney netted two goals against No. 22 Akron in a double overtime tie Oct. 18, 2016. Beckford knocked in a penalty kick before scoring less than 20 seconds later to put Penn State up 4-1 over the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers, Oct. 22. The Manchester, England native led the Nittany Lions as he tallied five of Penn State's 17 points in its 6-2 victory over Rutgers. For his efforts, Beckford was named Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week and TopDrawerSoccer.com Honorable Mention Player of the Week. Finally, Beckford was named a TopDrawerSoccer.com Freshman Top 100 in the 2017 season.
Additionally, Dani Marks (Ra'anana, Israel) earned the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award for Penn State. The defender played in 15 matches with 1,331 minutes on the pitch and helped the Nittany Lions to two shutouts in the 2017 season.
The No. 7 seeded Nittany Lions head to Bloomington, Indiana Sunday, Nov. 5 for a 4 p.m. match with the No. 2 seeded Hoosiers of Indiana for the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament. The match is set to be featured on the Big Ten Network.