Czelusniak had the upper hand in a duel that went down to the wire as he and Malone’s two-time player of the week Deandre Clayton put up gaudy numbers in the box score in Week 9.
In the Battlers’ 60-55 victory, easily the most points scored in league history between two teams, the junior was as good as it gets. Czelusniak completed 26 of his 34 passes for 385 yards and five touchdowns (with no interceptions).
His completion percentage of over 76 percent and passing yardage total ranks among one of the top-10 efforts in single-game Great Midwest history and he was just the fourth QB to throw for 5 TD’s in a game.
He also added 32 yards of rushing for what amounted to almost 400 yards of total offense.
Czelusniak threw three of his scoring passes to WR Zack Lake and two more to WR Maurice Thomas, a conference special teams player of the week this season.
He led AB on a game-winning drive trailing 55-53 in the fourth quarter. The series lasted 18 plays for 82 yards, chewed up almost six and a half minutes on the clock and ended with a 1-yard plunge by RB Jamil Collison-Cofie.
In eight games, Czelusniak has now completed over 60 percent of his pass attempts and thrown for almost 2,000 yards. He is tied for the league lead in passing TD’s with 19 along with Ohio Dominican’s Evan Ernst, Hillsdale’s Chance Stewart and Tiffin’s Nick Watson.