Congratulations to Deerfield alumnus Ben Diffley ’20 on recently winning the DIII Soccer Goalkeeper of the Year honor for his performance in the 2022 soccer season at Williams College.
While at Deerfield as a PG, Ben also played Varsity Basketball. In 2020, he was awarded Deerfield’s Holbrook Ellis Cup Award, given to the member of the soccer team who, in the opinion of the players and coaches contributed the most to the success of the team. In his PG soccer season, Ben was selected to the league all-star team and voted as MVP.
According to D3soccer.com, “The D3soccer.com Goalkeeper of the Year honor goes to Williams junior Ben Diffley. Given that the Ephs managed less shots than their opponents and only averaged a single goal per game (1.08 GSA), the room for error was slim for Diffley and his backline. But the 6’5″ goalkeeper was up to the task, coming up big—figuratively and literally—to preserve ties and narrow victories as the 10-2-11 Ephs improbably advanced to the national title game. Despite playing a tough schedule and typically facing a dozen or more shots per game, half on target, Diffley managed to post a .51 goals against average (10th nationally) because of his excellent .885 save percentage that ranked third in the country. His 13 1/2 shutouts—four of which came in the NCAA tournament—were second most among his peers. Williams won two penalty shootouts with Diffley between the pipes, saving one shot in the NESCAC quarterfinal and crucially saving two in the NCAA second round to oust undefeated Messiah. He garnered All-NESCAC and United Soccer Coaches All-Region honors.”
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