INDIANAPOLIS – Great Midwest Athletic Conference Football Players of the Week for Week 7 of the regular season were announced on Monday morning after five more games were completed.
Hillsdale (6-1, 5-0 G-MAC) won its fifth straight and kept pace at the top of the league standings with a 45-24 win against Alderson Broaddus (2-5, 1-3 G-MAC). The Chargers burst out of the gates in this one, scoring the first 35 points of the game to put this one out of reach early.
Chance Stewart carved up the Battlers with three touchdowns and over 250 yards passing while connecting for two of those scores with Trey Brock, who had six catches for 157 yards.
Nationally-ranked Tiffin (7-0, 4-0 G-MAC) kept its perfect season alive in a 43-17 rout over Kentucky Wesleyan (2-4, 1-3 G-MAC). The stars for the No. 22 Dragons were bright as Kyle Brunson did the damage in the ground game while Victor Talley and Charles Holland ran wild in the secondary as favorite targets for Nick Watson.
Tiffin still needs to play Ohio Dominican (Week 8), Findlay (Week 11) and Hillsdale (Week 10) in the regular season, but the Dragons are out to prove themselves as championship contenders in their first year with the league.
Also in league play, Walsh (2-4, 2-2 G-MAC) pitched a shutout against Lake Erie (0-7, 0-5 G-MAC) as Devin Kenerly averaged almost 10 yards per touch on 17 rush attempts. The Cavaliers limited the Storm to just five total first downs and only 31 yards of offense.
Ohio Dominican (6-1, 4-1 G-MAC) is very much in the playoff conversation in a wild Super Region 1 with its fourth straight victory, this time over Malone (1-5, 1-4 G-MAC). QB Evan Ernst threw one TD each to Cory Contini, David Turner and Devanaire Conliffe. ODU scored the first 26 points of the game in the first quarter alone.
Findlay (4-3, 2-2 G-MAC) bounced back from the Hillsdale heartbreaker and earned a Super Region 1 win against Mountain East opponent Charleston. QB Adam Bertke threw for three touchdowns, including two to big tight end Luke Stuffel in the second half.
Offensive Player of the Week
Nick Watson
Tiffin
Quarterback
RS Sophomore
Cincinnati, OH (LaSalle HS)
Watson earns his second conference weekly honor of the season after directing the No. 22-ranked Dragons to their seventh straight victory in Week 7.
Watson completed almost 76 percent of his passes, going 22-of-29 through air, while throwing four touchdowns against Kentucky Wesleyan.
He accounted for almost 300 yards of total offense with an additional 39 yards rushing. The sophomore signal caller connected for scoring strikes from 44, 31, 18 and 13 yards out. Watson’s primary target was Victor Talley, who was on the receiving end of three passes in the end zone.
Watson has operated the Dragons offense with precision, establishing himself as the league’s top passer (passing yards, passing TD’s and yards per game) through seven games of the regular season. He is just 50 yards shy of the 2,000-yard mark and is averaging over 278 yards per game.
Watson has completed over 67 percent of his passes and thrown 17 touchdowns versus just four interceptions.
Watson was also the Great Midwest Offensive Player of the Week in Week 1.
Defensive Player of the Week
Kyle Gibson
Findlay
Defensive Lineman
Sophomore
Newark, OH (Newark Catholic HS)
As the league leader in tackles for loss and tied for the lead in sacks, Gibson has been wreaking havoc in opponents’ backfields all season long.
That continued in Week 7 against Charleston with another impressive effort that filled up the box score and served a catalyst for another stingy Oilers’ defensive showing.
Gibson started four games in 2017 as a freshman on the defensive line, a unit that boasted 2017 Great Midwest Defensive Lineman of the Year Johnny Hopkins. The sophomore has filled Hopkins’ shoes admirably after collecting nine more tackles - a new career high - against UC.
Gibson also had 3.5 tackles for a loss, including 1.5 sacks, which extends a streak of three consecutive games with at least once sack. He now has 6.5 sacks on the season, tied with Walsh’s Morgan Trust for the league lead.
He has racked up 12 tackles for a loss, three more than runner-up Zach VanValkenburg of Hillsdale, and has 31 total tackles on the year.
Special Teams Player of the Week
Maurice Thomas
Alderson Broaddus
Wide Receiver
Senior
Altamonte, FL (Lake Brantley/Webber International University)
For some reason, teams keep deciding to kick to the 5-8 speedster and time and time again, Thomas keeps making them pay by circulating around the highlight reels with his long runs.
His latest display was an 89-yard kick return for a touchdown as the Battlers fell against conference-leading Hillsdale.
Thomas ran one back early in the fourth quarter as the Battlers were able to score 21 of the their 24 points in the second half. He also returned five punts for 31 yards.
Thomas returned a kickoff for a score for the second week in a row and it was his third of the season already, establishing a new conference record that was previously held by NFL’er Keelan Cole and Findlay’s Jacob Hill.
He also had a 35-yard run back for an average of 62 yards per return. Thomas is also one of the best receivers in the league ranking 10th in yards (55.3 per game) and eighth in receptions (4.6 per game).
Thomas is also fourth in all-purpose yardage, averaging over 132 yards per game in rushing, receiving and the return games.