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Five Patriot League Football Players Honored by CFPA, ECAC for Weekly Performance
Sept. 19, 2012 CENTER VALLEY, Pa. - The weekly awards have all been handed out for Saturday's Football Championship Subdivision contests, and five Patriot Leaguers ended up taking home hardware from three different organizations. Four of the honorees were named by College Football Performance Awards (CFPA), with Lehigh junior linebacker Nigel Muhammad leading the way as both the National Defensive Performer of the Week and National Linebacker of the Week. Also honored as national performers of the week at their positions were Georgetown's Jeremy Moore (DB) and Kevin Macari (PR) as well as Lafayette's Darius Safford (DB). Fordham senior running back Carlton Koonce was named the Patriot League Offensive Player of the Week on Monday, and on Tuesday he added the ECAC FCS Offensive Player of the Week award to his haul. Koonce carried 31 times for 176 yards and two touchdowns to lead Fordham to a 34-27 win over Cornell on Saturday. Additional honors came in for Koonce and Moore on Thursday when they were named the FCS Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week, respectively, by the Metropolitan New York Football Writers Association (MNYFWA). The awards cover players from the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachuestts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island as well as the District of Columbia. Moore was the Patriot League Defensive Player of the Week on Monday, while Macari earned the League's Special Teams Player of the Week award. In a 24-21 loss to Yale, Moore totaled 12 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, a forced and recovered fumble and two interceptions, including one he returned 41 yards for a touchdown, while Macari recorded a 79-yard punt return for at touchdown in the second quarter. Muhammad stuffed the stat sheet in a 17-14 win for No. 13 Lehigh over Princeton on Saturday. The junior tallied 12 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss and two sacks, setting career highs in all three categories. He was one of three CFPA National Defensive Player of the Week honorees.
Safford recorded four tackles and two crucial interceptions in Lafayette's 28-21 win over Penn on Saturday, returning his first pick 31 yards for a touchdown to give the Leopards a 14-0 first-quarter lead and sealing the victory with an interception in the final minutes. The goal of College Football Performance Awards is to provide the most scientifically rigorous conferments in college football. Recipients are selected exclusively based upon objective scientific rankings of the extent to which individual players increase the overall effectiveness of their teams. The ECAC (Eastern College Athletic Conference) hands out weekly awards in the fall in football, cross country, field hockey, volleyball and soccer. Read about the four Patriot Leaguers honored on Tuesday A full list of Patriot League football student-athletes that have received national or regional FCS weekly honors in 2012 is included below. Week 3 (Games of Sept. 13-15) Week 2 (Games of Sept. 6-8) Week 1 (Games of Aug. 30-Sept. 1) |
