INDIANAPOLIS – The final wave of Great Midwest Athletic Conference Football Players of the Week was announced on Monday as the regular season concluded over the weekend.
Ohio Dominican toppled Findlay for the Great Midwest Championship in Columbus, taking down the nationally-ranked Oilers at Panther Stadium. ODU finished out the regular season as winners of seven straight.
Ohio Dominican had two players earn repeat conference weekly honors following the program’s win for a conference title.
Findlay was announced as an NCAA Championship qualifier from Super Region 1 on Sunday by the national committee. UF is the No. 7 seed from Super Region 1 in the 28-team bracket and will play on Saturday against No. 2 seed Shepherd on the road.
Several more rivalry games were completed as Walsh bested Malone for the John Bankert-Dick Gallagher Memorial Trophy. Alderson Broaddus also retained the G-MAC Founders Cup Game Trophy for the third consecutive season as the Battlers defeated Kentucky Wesleyan down in Owensboro.
Hillsdale finished the season on a four-game win streak with a shutout against Lake Erie in Painesville.
Great Midwest Offensive Player of the Week
Grant Russell
Ohio Dominican
Quarterback
Senior
Newark, OH (Newark HS)
Russell torched No. 21 Findlay with 339 passing yards on just 16 completions for a conference-record six touchdowns in the 49-24 Week 11 win against the Oilers. His six TD passes tied the single-game high as he earned offensive weekly honors from the league for the second time this season.
Russell connected in the end zone with Cory Contini three times, Devenaire Conliffe twice in the fourth quarter and David Turner once, as the Panthers put up 516 yards of total offense.
Russell’s six TD’s came against UF secondary that had just allowed seven TD’s against it during the entire year. He matched the single-game high across Division II this season, a feat that has been accomplished 12 other times in the fall.
It was his sixth game of the season passing for 300 or more yards and he finished with 30 TD’s vs. just 3 interceptions in the 2017 campaign
Russell was among Division II’s elite as he led the nation in completion percentage (72.5) and also ranked seventh in passing TD’s (30), eighth in passing yards (3,182) and fifth in passing yards per game (318.2). He also led the Great Midwest in all of those major statistical categories.
Great Midwest Defensive Player of the Week
Shyoun Petteway
Ohio Dominican
Defensive Back
Freshman
Steubenville, OH (Steubenville HS)
Petteway made some big plays for a defensive unit that helped slow down a Findlay attack that came in averaging nearly 50 points per game and over 525 yards of total offense.
He finished with four tackles (3 solo), an interception (39-yard return) and one fumble recovery (10-yard return). This was his second selection for defensive weekly honors in his rookie season.
Petteway’s fourth interception of the year came in the third quarter and he returned it 39 yards to set up an ODU touchdown. His fumble recovery came in the fourth quarter to seal the win
Petteway is now tied for the league lead with four interceptions on the season.
Great Midwest Special Teams Player of the Week
Joe Philipp
Hillsdale
Kicker
RS Freshman
Hillsdale, MI (Hillsdale HS)
As Hillsdale’s offense put up 54 points in a season-ending shutout at Lake Erie, Philipp matched the single-game conference scoring record by a kicker with 12 points.
Philipp converted all six PAT opportunities and made a pair of field goals, including a 48-yarder that is the second longest in conference history to Walsh’s Kasey Tingler (49 yards). He made that kick right as the clock expired in the first half.
Philipp gave the Chargers a 17-0 lead with a field goal from 34 yards out to cap a 10 play, 62-yard drive earlier in the second quarter.
Philipp finished the year with a league-leading 11 made field goals. He also made 44 of 46 PAT’s, almost 96 percent of his tries.