INDIANAPOLIS – The regular season ended for most programs as Great Midwest Athletic Conference Football Players of the Week awards were rolled out for Week 11 on Monday afternoon.
 
An outright Great Midwest champion was crowned on Saturday as Tiffin defeated Findlay, 52-45, as the Dragons finished a perfect 7-0 in the conference standings.
 
The playoffs are in sight for two teams, Tiffin and Ohio Dominican, as each school is guaranteed one more game in 2019.
 
Tiffin, now ranked 19th in the AFCA Coaches Poll, earned access to the NCAA Division II Championship bracket. The Dragons, seeded seventh in Super Region 1, will head to No. 2 seed Kutztown for a first-round matchup in the field of 28.
 
Ohio Dominican will represent the Great Midwest in the inaugural America’s Crossroads Bowl on Dec. 7 in Hobart, Ind. The Panthers have won five straight and will face Truman State from the Great Lakes Valley Conference at Brickyard Stadium.
 
Offensive Player of the Week
JaQuan Hardy
Tiffin
Running Back
RS Junior
Westlake, OH (Westlake HS)
 
Hardy ran wild again in Week 11 to do his part and then some to help Tiffin capture a championship title.
 
The league’s leading rusher added his to season totals with 207 yards on 25 carries. He averaged 8.3 yards per carry and ran for one touchdown.
 
Hardy was the first player from the conference to reach the 1,000-yard mark on the season and the redshirt junior is now threatening the single-season rushing record currently held by Findlay’s Daouda Sylla (1,554 in 2017).
 
Going into Saturday’s first-round playoff game at Kutztown, Hardy is sitting on 1,405 yards this season.
 
He has 14 touchdowns and is averaging almost eight yards per handoff, a number that is destined to be single season Great Midwest record. Hardy’s 13-yard touchdown with 4:11 in the second quarter gave Tiffin a 21-20 lead.
 
This is his third offensive player of the week award for the season. He has gone over 200 yards rushing twice this season and has ran for 100 or yards or more in four straight games.
 
Defensive Player of the Week
Camren Moore
Ohio Dominican
Linebacker
RS Senior
New Carlisle, OH (Tecumseh HS)
 
Moore received his second conference player of the week honor as a driving force to help defeat Hillsdale on the road in a low-scoring affair.
 
Moore racked up 11 tackles and had a pair of sacks while also forcing a fumble in a 17-7 ODU win.
 
Nine of 11 tackles were solo stops as the Panthers’ defense held strong to limit Hillsdale to 234 yards of total offense.
 
Moore has been one of the stars on the league’s best defense that gave up just 17.1 points per game in the regular season.
 
In nine games, he is averaging 9.6 tackles per contest, numbers that top all players in the league. He has 86 tackles total and his sacks vs. Hillsdale were the first of the season for the redshirt senior.
 
Special Teams Player of the Week
AJ Nickoli
Tiffin
Kicker
RS Sophomore
Lexington, OH (Lexington HS)
 
Simply put, Tiffin doesn’t win a conference title on Saturday without the contributions of Nickoli.
 
The redshirt sophomore booted a 21-yard field goal and converted all seven PAT tries in a seven-point margin of victory for the Dragons.
 
Nickoli ended the regular season fourth in the conference in scoring only behind his teammate Hardy, Hillsdale’s David Graham and Findlay’s Nate Slagel. He recorded 71 points.
 
Going into the NCAA playoffs, Nickoli has made 53-of-54 extra-point attempts and is 6-for-11 on all field goal tries.