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| Jala Coad could not be brought down by St. John Fisher. Heck, in this photo they aren't even close. Brockport athletics photo by Mathieu Starke |
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Games of Oct. 2, 2021
The Team of the Week, presented by Scoutware, is D3football.com's weekly honor roll, in its 23rd season of recognizing the top performance at each position from the previous week. Players are nominated by schools.
Offense
QB Bryce Lowe, Fr., Carthage
Lowe completed 17 of 23 passes for 336 yards and six touchdowns as Carthage won 63-42 at Millikin. He tied the school record for most passing touchdowns in a game and has posted Carthage's first back-to-back games of 300-plus yards passing since Evan Jones in 2009.
OL Daniel Tanielu, John Scarboro, Cress Fisher, Jay Waters, Mitch Dolinar, Gallaudet
The Bison offensive line helped to open up running lanes for rushers all day against Dean. Gallaudet ran for 393 yards on the ground on 51 carries for an average of 7.7 yards per carry. The Bison scored six rushing touchdowns against Dean, the defending ECFC champions, en route to a 42-35 victory for Gallaudet in the conference opener at Hotchkiss Field. GU's O-line blocked well up front as senior quarterback Timel Benton ran wild and accumulated a career best 232 rushing yards and four touchdowns and averaged 12.9 yards per carry. GU picked up 17 first downs on the ground and held the ball for close to 12 minutes of the third quarter, wearing down the Bulldogs.
RB Jala Coad, Jr., Brockport
Coad was a workhorse as he carried the ball 45 times for a career-high 240 yards en route to eclipsing 2,000 yards rushing for his career as the Golden Eagles defeated St. John Fisher 34-7. He added three touchdowns on the ground to help the Golden Eagles improve to 3-1 on the year. His 45 rushing attempts were a career-high and fell just two shy of the school record set by Adam Webster in 2002.
RB Giovanni Weeks, Jr., Wheaton
Weeks ran for a career-high 188 yards in Wheaton's 40-10 victory at WashU, averaging a robust 7.8 yards per carry. He scored Wheaton's first touchdown of the game on an 11-yard run to put the Thunder up 7-0. He later broke free for a 74-yard touchdown run in the third quarter to put Wheaton up 33-3.
WR Dominic Smith, So., Augsburg
Smith tied an Augsburg single-game record with four touchdown receptions, part of a 10-catch, 136-yard effort in Augsburg's 56-28 Homecoming win over St. Olaf. Smith caught second-quarter scores of 31 and 23 yards, a third-quarter score of 10 yards and a fourth-quarter score of 16 yards. His four touchdown receptions ties a school record set five times before -- Karl Sneider in 1966, Scott Hvistendahl in 1998, Mark Johnson in 2001, Ben Bothun in 2004 and Nick Heenie in 2018. Smith went over the 100-yard mark in receiving yardage for the third time in his four games this season.
WR Jake Simuncak, Sr., UW-La Crosse
Simuncak caught five passes for 139 yards (27.8 average) and three touchdowns in UWL's 45-23 win at UW-River Falls to open WIAC play. The 139 receiving yards and three touchdown catches were both career-highs. He caught a pair of touchdown passes in the second quarter, including from 13 and 63 yards. Simuncak had a 9-yard touchdown catch in the third quarter. Along with the 139 yards receiving, Simuncak and 49 yards on two punt returns and 54 yards on three kickoff returns to finish with a season-high 242 all-purpose yards.
TE Michael Lefever, Sr., Susquehanna
Lafever had a strong games for the River Hawks, making five grabs for a career-high 73 yards including a 50-yard touchdown pass from Michael Ruisch in a 62-23 win over Ursinus. The five catches were a season-best as well, and his TD score was his second of the season.
Defense
DE Korbyn Personett, Sr., Monmouth
Personett led the Scots with a career-high four sacks on Saturday as Monmouth sacked Lawrence quarterback D'Andre Weaver nine times. Personett had two sacks on third down and one on fourth down as his plays accounted for 33 lost yards. He also forced a fumble, had five solo tackles and seven total tackles as Monmouth shut out the Vikings 72-0.
DT Mack Brown, Jr., Massachusetts Maritime
Brown put together a day which included five solo tackles, three tackles for loss and a forced fumble against Westfield State. Mass. Maritime won the defensive battle 16-8.
DT Jake Holaday, Sr., Wheaton
Holaday was a force in Wheaton's 40-10 win at Wash U. Of his five solo tackles, four were made in the Bears' backfield with four tackles for loss (minus-22 yards), including three sacks (minus-18 yards). All three of his sacks occurred in the second quarter. The first came on third down to end a Wash U drive, while his second and third sacks came on the first two plays of a Wash U drive late in the second quarter.
DE Conor Murphy, Jr., Illinois Wesleyan
Murphy turned in a stellar defensive effort in IWU's 52-3 rout of Elmhurst. He wreaked havoc in the EU backfield, recording three tackles for loss, two and a half sacks, and a total of five tackles. He had a strip sack, while also adding three QB hurries. Murphy and IWU held Elmhurst to just 109 yards of total offense, including just seven yards rushing.
LB Sean Doran, Sr., Washington & Jefferson
Doran finished with a game-high 14 tackles, 10 of them solo, in a 24-20 win Saturday at Geneva. Doran added three tackles for loss, a sack and a quarterback hurry against the Golden Tornadoes. W&J's defense limited Geneva's triple-option attack to 3.3 yards per rush.
LB Joshua Salem, Sr., Western New England
Salem was a crucial part of the Golden Bears' success on defense this week holding Salve Regina to just a field goal in a 41-3 victory. Salem tallied seven tackles in the game with a huge sack to slow down a Salve run early in the second quarter to put the Seahawks back nine yards. Salem earned two more tackles for losses, both on Joey Mauriello, to end the game with three for a total of 11 yards.
LB James Ogunrin, So., Trinity (Texas)
Ogunrin led a Tiger defense that yielded just 181 yards of total offense -- just 31 yards rushing -- in a 27-6 road win at defending SAA champion Berry. Ogunrin paced Trinity with 11 total tackles, including six solo efforts, and three tackles for loss. He also tallied his first sack of the season.
CB Joc Pledger, Jr., Brevard
Pledger, who was named to the Team of the Week twice this spring, returns for his third appearance of the calendar year. He had two takeaways, forcing a fumble and intercepting a pass, in Brevard's 27-7 win against Greensboro.
S Nate Farm, Fr., Bethel
Farm was the leading tackler for the Bethel defense to go along with a pair of interceptions. The Royals limited the Gustavus offense to just nine points. He finished with seven tackles, five solo, and the two picks.
S Blaine Netterman, Jr., Delaware Valley
Netterman had three tackles and two interceptions including one that he returned for 44 yards to the Lycoming 3-yard line to set up a Delaware Valley touchdown in a 32-7 win in Williamsport, Pa.
CB Ryan McGregor, Sr., Carleton
McGregor had two crucial red zone interceptions in Carleton's 24-10 win at Macalester. His first interception came at the Carleton 15-yard line on the opening drive of the second half, and he returned the ball 29 yards. His other pick came in the end zone, to thwart any hopes of a comeback by the Scots as Carleton maintained possession of the Book of Knowledge. He also recorded seven tackles, all solo.
Special teams
K Doug Cummings, Sr., Gettysburg
Cummings broke the school and conference records for longest field goal made with a 55-yarder against No. 23 Muhlenberg. After hitting a 29-yard field goal in the first half, Cummings easily cleared the crossbar by several feet with his record-breaking boot in the third quarter against the Mules. He bested the previous program record by 7 yards and topped the Centennial Conference mark by 3 yards. He followed up with the lead tackle on the ensuing kickoff.
P Collin Scozzafava, So., Muskingum
Scozzafava booted a career-best 70-yard punt and averaged 46.7 yards per punt on six punts with one inside the 20 and two fair catches to pace the Muskie special teams play at John Carroll.
RET Travis Brown, Sr., Carleton
Brown shifted the momentum with his 95-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, matching the second-longest recorded return in Carleton's history, as Carleton defeated Macalester 24-10 and maintained possession of the Book of Knowledge trophy. Macalester had just scored to go up 10-6 midway through the second quarter when Brown caught the kick at the 5-yard line, cut to his right, broke a couple tackles, and raced down the sideline to put Carleton ahead for good. He also averaged 13.0 yards on two punt returns.
ST Logan Young, So., Carnegie Mellon
Young was part of a huge specials team play. In the win at Bethany, Young blocked a punt that was recovered in the end zone by the Tartans to make the score 20-0 with five minutes to play in the first quarter. On the next Bison possession, Young got a hand on another punt that want 14 yards to set the Tartans up with a short field and five plays later Carnegie Mellon took a 27-0 lead. Over the past 10 seasons, Carnegie Mellon had only blocked two punts and Young's block against the Bison marked the second straight game the Tartans had a block punt this season.