Though the Big Ten regular season has been sculpted perfectly and placed affirmatively on the shelf of the Penn State men's soccer team's award case, the trophy for Big Ten Freshman of the Year still needs to be engraved.

The Lions have a candidate in the race in forward Jason Yeisley, who has quickly adopted a leadership role on offense this season. His partnership on the attack with junior forward Simon Omekanda has resulted in eight goals and twenty points, both team-leading statistics.

But his route to the award will have to make a stop in Bloomington, Ind., home of forward Lee Nguyen.

Statistically, both players are very close and by far the leading freshman candidates. Yeisley has eight goals to Nguyen's five, but trails the Hoosier in assists, four to 10. Each has a handful of game-winning goals, and each takes a significant amount of his team's shots.

They have also been recognized on the national level, with Nguyen being named Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week twice and recently dubbed National Player of the Week by College Soccer News. Yeisley's also been named Big Ten Player of the Week, and selected for National Team of the Week by both College Soccer News and Soccer America.

Each of the seven Big Ten men's soccer coaches has either received the ballot or will get it shortly, and vote for the award next Tuesday. It's a subjective vote, since there is no set criteria for basing a judgment, so each coach can come to his decision in a unique way.

For Indiana men's soccer coach Mike Freitag, the vote comes down to the player's contributions to his team, rather than statistics or recognition. He said you can look at statistics, but they can be padded by goals against weak teams. But he also said it can be hard to judge, since coaches have a limited view of each team.

"It's kind of unfair, cause you only get to see the kid one time," Freitag said.

There is the possibility that one of those five remaining coaches doesn't vote for Yeisley or Nguyen. Since coaches don't see each player for an extended amount of time, a particular coach can be impressed with how one freshman performed against his team -- even if that freshman hasn't been impressive over the long run.

But Indiana men's soccer coach Mike Freitag and Penn State men's soccer coach Barry Gorman said that they couldn't think of any other freshman who has been as impressive as Yeisley or Nguyen this season.

Because each coach only gets around 90 minutes of seeing each player, the player's reputation may end up be a deciding factor.

"I would hope that people vote on what the person does and not on his reputation," Gorman said. "They're both putting worthy numbers on the board."

Nguyen's reputation somewhat outstrips Yeisley's, being named National Gatorade Boys Soccer High School Player of the Year last year and appearing in a two-page spread in Sports Illustrated on Campus earlier this semester.

But Gorman points to Yeisley's two-goal performance vs. Indiana, including the game-winner in overtime, as well as his game-winning goal vs. Michigan as signs of his value.

"Those are very important contributions," Gorman said.

Freitag did some lobbying for his own player, which may be understandable given his familiarity. He said that while most of Nguyen's contributions have come in non-conference games, Nguyen's come on of late, scoring a game-deciding goal vs. Notre Dame on Oct. 26.

"Jason, he's a good player," Freitag said. "But I think [Nguyen] has some special abilities that you don't see very often. He's got some things that other players don't have."

Since coaches cannot vote for their own players, that takes away the my-player-is-better bias. And if Yeisley and Nguyen are the only two worthy candidates, Gorman and Freitag would cancel votes out by voting for each other's player, leaving the five remaining coaches.

"I would think it would be a 3-2 vote in somebody's favor," Gorman said. "It'll be up to the other coaches in the conference."