With their 2 choices in the 3rd round and the final one in the 4th it brought their total to 7 selections over 4 rounds, one out of the Alma Mata of Tim Parker and myself, St. John's University, this led to one of their social media platfroms to comment on their rule of always having a pair of players out of the Red Storm, Connor Lade has retired.
2 Greeks will now be in red as URI Fwd. Stavros Zarokostas was taken 10th in the 3rd round and the aforementioned St. John's product, Niko Petridis and the overall 93rd selection, the 4th round's 15th pick, we are so hoping the massive Greek soccer community in NYC comes out in force to support these two, between the 2 was Loyola MD Mid. Barry Sarifi, previously an U-23 Red Bulls team member.
Stavros Zarokostas: a 4 year starter at URI, totalling 28 goals and 17 assists over his collegiate carrer for the Rams, being honored as an All-Region player his last 2 years by the USC. His rookie year saw the player with 8 goals and a quartet of assists covering 15 starts and singled out as the 2016 Atlantic-10 Rookie of the Year.
Barry Sharifi: A neighbor to Hicksville's Tim Parker, might the 3 carpool at times including their teammate out of Massapequa, Sean Nealis? He was the 3rd All-American to come out of the Loyola program and tabbed as the Patriot League Midfielder of the Year thrice over 2017, '18 & '19. Over his 4 year career as a Greyhound he amassed 19 goals and the same high number in assists over his 71 games. Betwen semesters, he was with the U-23's garnering 2 goals for his half dozen matches, good for 226 minutes last year. He also has ties to St. John's as his High School coach at Jericho played for them when they took the 1996 NCAA National Title with Dani Braga in goal, as a youngster Braga played at RBNY Broadcaster Shep Messing's indoor soccer center in Syosset where I had refereed his games. It is now far less than 6 degrees of separation.
Niko Petridis: Another draft, the first choice out the the national program of Dr. David Masur in a while, it will not be so long until the next. He stepped up from UConn and had 35 games over his pair of years with the Johniees getting 3 of his goals and assists this past season as a sub. Before St. John's he had 16 starts over 35 games with a quartet of goals and assists, some balance in his points, his Rookie Year had him as an ACC All-Rookie Team selection in 2016.