The Sports Inquirer

Release from the ACC:

Nine ACC men’s soccer players were taken in Major League Soccer’s SuperDraft, held Thursday afternoon in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The nine ACC players taken in the first two rounds and the five selected in the first round both were the most from any conference.

Notre Dame’s Nick Besler (Portland Timbers, 5^th pick), Syracuse’s Alex Bono (Toronto FC, 6^th), and NC State’s Clément Simonin (Toronto FC, 9^th) gave the league three top-10 picks, and all three stand as the highest draft picks in their respective programs’ histories.

Syracuse’s Skylar Thomas (Toronto FC, 11^th) and Clemson’s Amadou Dia (Sporting Kansas City, 20^th) rounded out the league contingent in the first round.

With those selections, the ACC has produced at least two first round picks every year in the 20 years of the MLS draft, and has had at least three in each of the past seven season. The five first round picks is tied for the third most in league history, behind six players league players taken in 2007 and 2010.

NC State’s Conor Donovan (Orlando City FC, 22^nd) was taken with the first pick of the second round, and was followed by North Carolina’s Boyd Okwuonu (Real Salt Lake, 27^th) and Rob Lovejoy (Houston Dynamo, 36^th), and Virginia’s Eric Bird (Philadelphia Union, 41^st).

Bono and Donovan had signed Generation adidas contracts with MLS last week.

In addition to the nine players drafted on Thursday, Duke’s Sean Davis signed as a MLS Homegrown Player with the New York Red Bulls in December.

The third and fourth rounds of the 2015 MLS SuperDraft, presented by adidas, will take place on Tuesday, Jan. 20.

(#) Pick number

• Generation adidas