Nashua South's Santi Somorrostro was an All-American, clearly the state's best player, making him the obvious choice to repeat as New Hampshire Gatorade Boys Soccer Player of the Year. (Telegraph file photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA — Nashua High School South’s Santi Somorrostro will be headed to UMass Lowell in the fall to play soccer, and he’ll be bringing some hardware with him.

Gatorade announced on Friday that for the second year in a row, the Nashua South All-American, who helped lead the Panthers to back-to-back titles in 2021-22 and was arguably the state’s best player in the fall of 2023, has won the Gatorade New Hampshire Boys Soccer Player of the Year. This time it’s for the 2023-24 school year.

Somorrostro is the first Gatorade Player of the Year in boys soccer to be chosen from Nashua South High School. The award, which celebrates the nation’s top high school athletes for excellence on the field, in the classroom and in the community, distinguishes Somorrostro as New Hampshire’s best high school boys soccer player.

The state’s returning Gatorade Player of the Year, the 5-foot-10, 165-pound senior midfielder scored 25 goals and passed for 16 assists this past season, leading the Panthers (15-3) to the Division I quarterfinals. Somorrostro is a two-time First Team All-State selection and a two-time United Soccer Coaches High School All-American honoree.

He concluded his high school soccer career with 48 goals and 43 assists.

Somorrostro has volunteered locally with the Humane Society of Nashua as well as the Salvation Army. He has also donated his time on behalf of the Nashua South Student Mentor program and as part of community beautification projects.

“Santi is an exceptional talent,” said Panthers coach Tom Bellen. “He played

wherever we needed him this year to (keep us) competitive. He is an extremely well-rounded student-athlete.”

Somorrostro has maintained a weighted 4.65 GPA in the classroom. He has signed a national letter of intent to play soccer on scholarship at UMass Lowell this fall.

Somorrostro is once again in great company. From CEOs and coaches to star athletes, Gatorade Player of the Year winners showcase are an all-star group of alumni that includes Lyle Yorks (1987-88, E.O. Smith High School, Conn.), Alecko Eskandarian (1999-00, Bergen Catholic High School, N.J.) and Ben Bender (2019-20, Calvert Hall College High School, Md.).

Two-time winner Somorrostro joins recent Gatorade New Hampshire Boys Soccer Players of the Year Eric Ringer(2021-22, Hanover High School), Samuel Latona (2020-21, Manchester Central High School) and Charlie Adams (2019-20, Hanover High School), among the state’s list of former award winners.

The Gatorade Player of the Year program annually recognizes one winner in the District of Columbia and each of the 50 states that sanction high school football, girls volleyball, boys and girls cross country, boys and girls

basketball, boys and girls soccer, baseball, softball, and boys and girls track & field, and awards one National Player of the Year in each sport. The selection process is administered by the Gatorade Player of the Year Selection Committee, which leverages experts including coaches, scouts, media and others as sources to help evaluate and determine the state winners in each sport.

Every Player of the Year also receives a grant to donate to a social impact partner. To date, the Gatorade Player of the Year program has provided more than $4.9 million in grants to winners across more than 1,900 organizations.

(Telegraph Staff Writer Tom King contributed to this report.)