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| Jailen Hobbs sprinted his way onto the Team of the Week for the second consecutive week. Rose-Hulman athletics photo |
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Games of Nov. 3-4, 2023
The Team of the Week, presented by Scoutware, is D3football.com's weekly honor roll, in its 25th season of recognizing the top performance at each position from the previous week. Players are nominated by schools.
Offense
QB Derek Larimer, Sr., Wilmington
Larimer had an unforgettable game for the Quakers at Muskingum in a heartbreaking 64-63 loss. He threw for a program-record nine touchdowns, which tied the Ohio Athletic Conference record. He threw for 482 yards and went 35-for-52 passing. All six wide receivers he threw to in the game recorded at least one touchdown.
OL Zach Smith, Collin LeBlanc, Nick Barrett, Jake Dauphinee, Chris Morris, Western New England
The line helped Western New England run for a program record of 590 rush yards. WNE averaged 10.7 yards per carry, while three rushers ran for more than 100 yards in a 69-28 win against Nichols.
RB Grant Ripperda, Sr., Rose-Hulman
Ripperda helped etch his name into the Rose-Hulman record book with 38 carries (10th most in school history), 226 rushing yards (fourth in school history), and five rushing touchdowns (tied for most in school history) in the 78-54 win over Defiance. He also surpassed the 1,000-yard mark for the season to become just the second Rose-Hulman player to reach that mark in the past 12 years.
RB Zayne Cawley, So., Waynesburg
Sophomore running back Zayne Cawley set a new Waynesburg single-game record by rushing for 336 yards on 41 carries during Waynesburg's 35-26 win at Bethany. Cawley also scored four touchdowns on runs of 43, 2, 21 and 9 yards.
WR Da'Mani Brown, Jr., Loras
Brown recorded nine receptions for 250 yards and five touchdowns as Loras crushed Simpson, 82-16. He broke the school's single season reception record and now has 83 catches, and his school-record five touchdowns give him 20 TDs on the season.
WR Cole Burgess, Sr., Cortland
Burgess caught nine passes for 245 yards and three touchdowns as Cortland defeated visiting Brockport, 41-17, to clinch the Red Dragons' third straight outright Empire 8 title. His three touchdown catches ties a school single-game record that he already held a share of, and his 245 receiving yards are the fourth-highest in school history. Burgess caught a 64-yard TD pass in the first quarter to give Cortland a 14-3 lead. His 24-yard TD reception with less than a minute remaining in the first half made it 24-3, and his 71-yard scoring catch in the third quarter pushed Cortland's advantage to 38-3.
TE Mike DeSantis, Sr., FDU-Florham
DeSantis accounted for three total touchdowns as FDU-Florham wnt on the road and came away with a 28-21 win at Lebanon Valley. He posted a team- and career-high 110 yards receiving on seven catches and caught two touchdowns while also running for a touchdown on the afternoon.
Defense
DE Jahlin Russell, Sr., Averett
Russell led the Cougars with nine tackles (six solo), including 4.0 tackles for loss. Those stops behind the line of scrimmage included three sacks with one as a strip-sack. Russell cost the Quakers 26 yards of offense with 25 of those coming on his sacks. He and the Cougars' defense limited Guilford to 1 yard of net rushing.
DT Ryan McGuire, Sr., TCNJ
McGuire was a menace on the interior in Saturday's 31-14 win over William Paterson, racking up three of the team's six sacks from his defensive tackle spot. Those sacks resulted in 17 yards of losses for the Pioneers.
DT Ed Iuteri, Sr., Tufts
The 28 passing yards that Tufts allowed was the fewest since 2011 for the Jumbos. Iuteri was a big part of that, as he posted two sacks, four tackles, a forced fumble, a quarterback hurry and a pass breakup. Iuteri and the Jumbos posted their first shutout in 29 games with a 38-0 win against Colby.
DE Jason Lund, Sr., Southwestern
Lund had a career-high four sacks for 23 yards against Millsaps while also recording five tackles for loss for 43 yards. In addition, Lund forced two fumbles which the Pirates recovered, one being a strip-sack. Lund was part of a defense that held Millsaps to just 13 points in the game on the way to a 42-13 victory.
LB Hunter Hawk, Sr., Washington and Lee
Hawk's defensive efforts helped the Generals defeat Bridgewater 31-21. He recorded ten tackles, four solo, and two tackles for loss. He recorded a career-high 1.5 sacks while breaking up one pass. Hawk and the Generals defense held the Eagles high-powered rushing attack, who averaged 212.9 yards per game coming into Lexington, to 119 yards on the ground.
LB Dominick Nocero, Jr., TCNJ
Nocero racked up a team-high 11 tackles, including two tackles for loss and one sack in a 31-14 win against William Paterson. He also forced a fumble and had an interception that he returned 22 yards to the WPU 23 to set up a touchdown that extended TCNJ's lead to 17 in the fourth quarter.
CB Anthony Esposito, Jr., Ursinus
Esposito intercepted a pass and blocked a field goal in the Bears' 48-35 win over Gettysburg. It was his second straight game with an interception and he made four tackles (three solo) as well.
S Sam Cotton, Fr., Cortland
Cotton made 10 tackles, seven solo, intercepted a pass and broke up another in Cortland's 41-17 win over visiting Brockport. He helped the Cortland defense hold Brockport to just one offensive touchdown and 285 yards of total offense, including 10-of-28 passing for 106 yards with five interceptions.
S Ryan Wilson, Fr., Widener
Wilson and the Pride cruised to a 41-10 win over Eastern. He tied the Widener school record for interceptions in a game with three. Wilson grabbed two in the first quarter and the last in the fourth. Throughout the game he also registered eight total tackles, five solo.
S Joe Carchio, Sr., King's
In a 16-8 win over Stevenson to give the Monarchs their first win in Owings Mills since 2013, Carchio totaled 11 tackles with two and a half tackles for loss, half a sack, a forced fumble, a pass break up, and a quarterback hurry. The senior recorded the 250th tackle of his career in the win and has put up a forced fumble in three of the last four games at safety.
CB Matt Jung, So. Bethel
Jung tallied his second pick-six in as many weeks to go along with five tackles and a forced fumble in the Royals' 31-14 defeat of Concordia, landing them in their third straight MIAC Championship game. On the fourth play of the game, Jung jumped the Concordia route, returning it 45 yards for the opening score.
Special teams
K Will Caviness, Sr., Averett
Caviness went 2-for-2 on field goals of 41 and 39 yards, both surpassing his previous season long. He was also 4-for-4 on PATs. His two field goals helped Averett pull away in the second half and both came in front of his hometown crowd on the road in a win at Guilford.
P Ethan Klapatch, Jr., Millsaps
Klapatch had another strong day in special teams as the Majors lost to Southwestern 42-13. He punted the ball four times for 183 yards (45.8-yard average), with a long of 53 yards and one touchback.
RET Jailen Hobbs, Sr., Rose-Hulman
Hobbs showed out in the return game for the second week in a row with 130 punt return yards on just 3 returns. His 79-yard punt return touchdown is the sixth-longest in school history and the ninth-longest in Division III this season.
ST Jack Kelly, Jr., UW-La Crosse
Kelly was the one who got his hands on a field goal attempt on the final play of the game as UW-La Crosse held on to win at UW-River Falls by a 31-28 score.