Connecticut Spotlight

OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK

⏩ Nick Gargiulo, Dieter Eiselen, Sterling Strother, Lucas Tribble, Steven Cepalia, Cameron Warfield, D. Major Roman, Yale: When a quarterback (Kurt Rawlings) throws five touchdown passes and is sacked only once, a running back (Zane Dudek) has nearly 300 yards from scrimmage and a receiver (JP Shohfi) ties the Ivy League record with four touchdown receptions in the same game, much of the credit needs to go to the offensive line. Six players are named because Cepalia came in for an injured Tribble during the game and he contributed to Yale finishing with 627 yards of total offense. Roman wasn’t involved much in the passing game but the junior tight end from New London was a factor with his blocking in the running game during Yale’s 5935 win at Brown.

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK

⏩ Nick Helbig, Wesleyan: The freshman defensive lineman and former Fitch star had 4 1⁄2 tackles for loss and 3 1⁄2 sacks as the Cardinals ended a fourgamelosing streak to Trinity with a 2820 victory. Helbig led Wesleyan with seven tackles helping the Cardinals post their first eightwin season since 1969.

SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE WEEK

⏩ Alec Brown, New Haven: Averaged 46.1 yards on seven punts. He had three punts of at least 50 yards including a 64 yarder. He has averaged more than 40 yards per punt in each of the last four games.

HOMETOWN FOCUS

⏩ Bobby Haskins, Virginia: The sophomore from Fairfield started his eighth consecutive game at left offensive tackle as Virginia ran for 155 yards and passed for 258 in win over Georgia Tech to improve to 72 and are in first place in the ACC Coastal Division with one conference game remaining.

BY THE NUMBERS

1: Career catches for New Haven receiver Zhyaire Fernandes, a freshman from Stratford, who had the gamewinning 27yard touchdown reception with 28 seconds left in 3433 win over Assumption.

2: Interceptions by Wesleyan’s Ben Thaw in 2820 win over Trinity. He also had five tackles and was named the NESCAC Defensive Player of the Week.

4: New Haven players with at least 10 tackles in 3433 win over Assumption led by Zach Cofrancesco’s 12 tackles including 11 solo stops.

4: Teams tied for first place in the Northeast10 standings with one game remaining. Something will have to give when New Haven and Stonehill meet on Saturday. The other firstplace teams are Bentley, which plays AIC, and Assumption, which plays at Saint Anselm.

5: Touchdown passes for New Haven quarterback Christian Lupoli in 3433 win over Assumption. His final touchdown pass with 29 seconds left capped a rally from an 11point deficit in the fourth quarter. Lupoli has 13 touchdown passes and two interceptions this season.

6: Sacks by Yale defense, including two by Spencer Matthaei, in win over Brown

8: Turnovers caused by Sacred Heart in 417 win over Wagner as the Pioneers had four interceptions and four fumble recoveries. Mike Provenzano had two interceptions including one he returned 59 yards for a score while Mike Wilen had a pair of fumble recoveries.

11: Touchdown receptions by WestConn’s Will Daniels this season including two in Saturday’s win at Fitchburg State. Brent Bardellini holds the program record with 14 touchdown grabs in 1999.

11: Tackles by Central Connecticut’s Foday Jalloh including two tackles for loss in win over Saint Francis.

31: Yards per reception for Trinity’s Jonathan Girard in 2820 loss to Wesleyan as he caught four passes for 124 yards, including touchdowns of 21 and 71 yards.

94: Tackles this season for Coast Guard’s Eugene Bizer. The junior linebacker also has two interceptions and two fumble recoveries.

143: Yards from scrimmage for Central Connecticut’s Tyshaun James in an novertime win over Saint Francis. James had a 48yard touchdown run on his only carry, caught six passes for 95 yards including 15yard touchdown and had a 34yard pass completion.

121:: Receiving yards by WestConn’s Daniels in 417 win over Fitchburg State.

258: Career tackles for UConn junior safety Tyler Coyle of Windsor, 14 coming in Saturday’s loss at Cincinnati. He is 26th in program history in tackles.

294: Yards from scrimmage for Yale’s Zane Dudek who ran for 216 yards and added 78 yards on two receptions in win over Brown.

1,224: Rushing yards for Sacred Heart’s Julius Chestnut, the fifth best single season mark in program history.

2009: Last time an offensive player from UConn played in the Senior Bowl. Offensive tackle Matt Peart accepted an invitation to play in the game and he would be the first Husky on the offensive side of the ball to take part since lineman Will Beatty played in the 2009 game.

2,396: Ralph Plumb’s Yale career record for receiving yards that has stood since 2004. If the record is important to him, he might want to take a picture of the record book soon because Reed Klubnik is 23 yards shy of setting the mark and JP Shohfi is only 140 yards from topping Plumb’s mark.

SATURDAY’S SCHEDULE

Lehigh (45) at Sacred Heart (64), noon; Merchant Marine (53) at Coast Guard (54), noon; Pace (54) at Southern Connecticut State (27), noon; Plymouth State (63) at Western Connecticut (72), noon; Robert Morris (64) at Central Connecticut (91), noon; Stonehill (63) at New Haven (63), 1 p.m.; Yale (71) at Princeton (71), 1 p.m.