Maryland men’s soccer goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair, who preserved clean sheets in all five games of the Terps’ national championship run, will forgo his final year of eligibility in favor of a Major League Soccer opportunity.
Coach Sasho Cirovski told The Washington Post on Thursday that St. Clair signed with the league and will be available in next week’s MLS SuperDraft in Chicago. The goalkeeper played every minute of the last two seasons for Maryland, ending his career with the program’s fourth national title.
St. Clair was honored on Senior Night before a 5-0 win over Ohio State on Oct. 19, but a team spokesperson said at the time that he wished to be celebrated alongside the players he entered college with. He took a redshirt year during his second season as a Terp to pursue an opportunity with the Canadian U-20 national team.
[Read more: After two disappointing seasons, Maryland men’s soccer redeemed itself with a national title]
His final season in college was among the best of any goalkeeper in the NCAA. He ranked tied for third with 13 shutouts, 11th with a 0.66 goals against average and 12th with a .833 save percentage.
Aided by a stout defense, St. Clair didn’t concede a goal for the final 499 minutes of the season as Maryland outscored its tournament opponents 8-0 en route to the title.
Junior Donovan Pines anchored the backline in front of St. Clair, emerging as one of the nation’s elite defenders. His year set him up for an offseason of looming decisions about his professional future, but he’s still weighing his options, according to the Post.
Pines can either return for his final season at Maryland, where his father is the engineering school’s dean; he can sign a homegrown contract with MLS team D.C. United; or he can test potential international opportunities. He’s expected to workout in England soon, which could lead to an offer overseas, according to the Post.
[Read more: Donovan Pines shut down Kentucky’s best attacker in Maryland soccer’s Elite Eight win]
The All-Big Ten first team recipient missed only one game this season — the Big Ten semifinal against Indiana — while nursing a concussion. He later scored against the Hoosiers to cement a 2-0 win in the College Cup to advance to the national championship.
The Maryland native wasn’t a regular starter when the 2017 season began, but quickly earned a role that barely took him off the field for the remainder of the past two seasons. He led a Terps defense that didn’t concede more than two goals in a game in 2018, a feat Maryland hasn’t accomplished since 2003.
