INDIANAPOLIS – Three student-athletes were recognized as Great Midwest Athletic Conference Football Players of the Week for the sixth week of the season by the league on Monday morning.
 
What did we learn from Week 6? There were plenty of revealing signs that affected the latest shakedown of the conference standings.
 
Hillsdale is for real. The Chargers clamped down defensively against Ohio Dominican and observers were wondering if it was a fluke with the Panthers considered a heavy favorite going in. Well, HC answered that emphatically by taming the league’s highest-scoring offense with a statement win on the road at Findlay, 20-17.
 
At 5-1 overall and 4-0 in the conference, the Chargers remain in the driver’s seat at the top of the Great Midwest and are suddenly carving out a resume that is NCAA Championship-qualifying caliber with the rest of Super Region I in flux.
 
Tiffin should be ranked in the top 25 of the AFCA Coaches Poll as we’ve pushed past the midway point of the season. Not even Mother Nature in the form of a rain delay could slow down the Dragons’ momentum against Malone as the program remained unbeaten this season.
 
Tiffin is now 6-0 and got it done on the ground between the combo of Tylan Rice and Kyle Brunson, each combining to average almost seven yards per carry. The Dragons have to be salivating at a potential championship matchup against Hillsdale, but with ODU, UF also remaining on the schedule, will need to take it a week at a time.
 
Ohio Dominican doubled up Walsh as the Cavaliers proved to be another tough out in the conference schedule after playing Tiffin to a seven-point game.
 
Week 5 Offensive Player of the Week Cory Contini’s encore for 5 receiving TD’s was two plays over 80 yards, including a receiving TD and a punt return run back for a score.
 
Alderson Broaddus reeled in its second win in three weeks by running roughshod over Lake Erie. The Battlers ambushed the Storm with a 21-point lead in the first quarter and six different players scored touchdowns.
 
Big plays of 50+ yards were courtesy of Maurice Thomas (kickoff return), Dante Waugh (56-yard catch) and Nicolas Bishop (70-yard run).
 
 
Offensive Player of the Week
Ashton Dulin
Malone
Wide Receiver
Senior
Reynoldsburg, OH (Reynoldsburg HS)
 
It is turning into an embarrassment of riches for the Great Midwest at the wide receiver position. Between Dulin, Cory Contini (Ohio Dominican), Trey Brock (Hillsdale), Maurice Thomas (Alderson Broaddus), Charles Holland (Tiffin) and others, the league is simply loaded with playmakers.
 
Despite a team loss against Tiffin, Dulin was a wrecking crew in three different facets of the game as he accounted for all of Malone’s three touchdowns on Saturday.
 
Dulin contributed three scoring plays of 50+ yards, becoming the first player in conference history to record a rushing, receiving and kickoff return touchdowns in the same game.
 
Only two players went over the 100-yard receiving mark in Week 6 with Dulin being one of them. He had four catches for 108 yards and was on the receiving end of a 67-yard bomb.
 
A little deception helped Dulin cash in on a 55-yard rushing score in the third quarter and he ran back the game’s opening kickoff 99 yards to the house to get Malone on the scoreboard first.
 
It was Dulin’s third kickoff return for a touchdown this season to break the single-season record previously shared by Keelan Cole (Kentucky Wesleyan) and Jacob Hill (Findlay). The senior speedster accounted for 294 all-purpose yards.
 
In five games, Dulin has 27 catches for 388 yards and six touchdowns. He was a first-team all-conference selection by the league’s coaches as a junior.
 
Defensive Player of the Week
Drake Temple
Hillsdale
Defensive Back
Junior
Wixom, MI (Walled Lake Central HS)
 
After matching the single-game conference scoring record in Week 5, Findlay was a formidable test for a Hillsdale defense that went out and passed with flying colors once again.
 
Temple played a starring role in limiting the Oilers to 17 points on the scoreboard with 10 total tackles and forced two turnovers in the UF red zone on an interception and a forced fumble.
 
Temple had eight solo stops and his pick of Findlay’s Adam Bertke will be circulating around the highlight reels as he contorted his body to make a one-handed snare intended for Findlay tight end Jacob Boucher.
 
His final act was a goal line stand on a potential game-winning drive as he punched the ball loose from Bertke stretching for the end zone and the ball was recovered by teammate Wyatt Batdorff with seven seconds on the clock.
 
Temple and the Hillsdale defense held Findlay to its lowest season point total (in a conference game) since joining the Great Midwest.
 
Special Teams Player of the Week
Joe Philipp
Hillsdale
Kicker
Sophomore
Hillsdale, MI (Hillsdale HS)
 
With ice in his veins, Philipp drilled the game-winning field goal to split a 17-17 tie and set a new conference record with a 51-yarder in Saturday’s win over Findlay.
 
Just under 90 seconds were left to play in the fourth quarter as the sophomore capitalized on a five-play, 35-yard drive.
 
Philipp’s field goal of 51 yards broke the previous long held by Walsh’s Kasey Tingler, who booted a 49-yard kick vs. Lake Erie in 2017.
 
In a low-scoring game where kicking was vital, Philipp also made a 33-yard field goal in the third quarter and converted a pair of PAT’s.
 
Philipp has now made six field goals and 20 PAT’s on the season and has scored a total of 38 points for the Chargers.