2025 Men's Soccer Roster
Rafael Ponce de León
- Height:
- 6-3
- Position:
- GK
- Class:
- Senior
- Hometown:
- Pennington, N.J.
- High School:
- Pennington School
- Prev School:
- Villanova
- Major:
- Communication Studies
2024: Started in all 16 of his appearances ... Impressed in his first season as Northwestern's primary netminder, posting a 1.19 goals against average while tallying five shutouts, two of which came against Big Ten Conference opposition ... Had five outings with three-plus saves ... Made a pair of stops in a 1-0 road win at UIC (9/2) ... Turned in another two-save effort as part of a 1-0 victory against Marquette (9/9) ... Piled up four saves in scoreless stalemate with Wisconsin (10/15).
2023: Started in all three of his appearances, closing the year with a 0.33 goals against average … Made collegiate debut in 2-1 win over Northern Illinois (9/8), making a pair of stops against the Huskies ... Turned in a five-save showing en route to first collegiate clean sheet in 2-0 blanking of UC Riverside (9/15) ... Added another shutout in scoreless draw with Green Bay (10/3).
2022 (at Villanova): Did not see any game action.
High School: Started all four years at goalkeeper at Pennington School… Posted a 44-12-2 career record over four years… Recorded a clean sheet in 51% of matches… Two Time All-State Honorable Mention…Named Prep Player of the Year by The Trentonian… Selected as 2021 High School All-American alongside Wildcat teammate Henri Richter.
Club: Played for PDA MLS Next… Advanced to U17 MLS NEXT Final … Named U17 MLS NEXT Best Goalkeeper.
Personal: Son of Monica Saldivar and Rafael Ponce de León Treviño… Born Rafael Ponce de León on March 5, 2004… Anticipated major at Northwestern is communication studies.
