Michigan Tech's Short Named GLIAC Offensive Player of the Week

Click here for printer-friendly (PDF) version of release

BAY CITY, Mich. -- Michigan Tech football player Steve Short (Iron Mountain, Mich./Kingsford) has been chosen as the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Week it was announced today by the league office. Tiffin University's Parris Burt (Flint, Mich./Northern) was selected Defensive Player of the Week, while Wayne State's Dante Dunn (Lansing, Mich./Waverly) earned Special Teams Player of the Week Honors.

GLIAC Offensive Player of the Week:
Steve Short - Michigan Tech
(JR, QB, 6-0, 190, Iron Mountain, Mich./Kingsford)

Short set a school record for completion percentage by going 24-of-28 vs. Winona State last Saturday (Aug. 30). The junior QB's 85.7 percent mark surpassed Scott Kieser's 84.6 percent (11-of-13) from Sept. 9, 1995. Short has set four school records in two career games vs. Winona. Short finished the game with 236 yards passing, three touchdowns, zero interceptions, and a 191.9 efficiency rating.

Offensive Honor Roll: Billy Cundiff - AU, Tom Schneider - FS, Mike Chambers - UF, Troy Weatherhead - HC, Craig Jenkins - UI, Greg Raspberry - TU, Chris Ostosh - WS.

GLIAC Defensive Player of the Week:
Parris Burt - Tiffin
(SR, LB, 6-1, 245, Flint, Mich./Northern)

Burt had 17 tackles (4solo) with a half sack in a defensive battle against the Ferris State Bulldogs. Burt helped hold the Bulldogs to 246 total yards of offense and led a defense that registered five sacks and forced two turnovers. Burt, who led the team with 137 tackles in the 2007 season, was named a Consensus Draft Services Division II Preseason All-American for the 2008 season.

Defensive Honor Roll: Cory Skoczen - AU, Kevin Noe - FS, Brandon Craft - UF, Drew Berube - HC, Mike Dum - UI, David Carmody - MT, Jason Thomas - WS.

GLIAC Special Teams Player of the Week:
Dante Dunn - Wayne State
(SR, FS/KR, 5-10, 188, Lansing, Mich./Waverly)

Senior return specialist Dante Dunn went 93 yards on the kickoff following a Mercyhurst field goal midway through the opening period. Dunn's kickoff return for a score was the fourth longest in school history and it also gives Dunn three of the eight longest kickoff returns for touchdowns in school history.

Special Teams Honor Roll: Joe Horn - AU, Jim Yates - FS, Matt Randall - UF, Andrew Wilburn - HC, Stephen Geller - UI, Jon Mills - MT, Dereck Sitterly - TU.

 ------GLIAC Football Notes, September 2, 2008------

Ashland - Redshirt sophomore wide receiver Joe Horn (Waynesfield, OH/Waynesfield-Goshen) set a school singlegame record for kickoff return yards (164) against Bloomsburg. Horn returned 5 kicks. His longest return measured 84 yards. Horn had 248 all-purpose yards against the Huskies. He caught 3 passes for 84 yards, including a 39-yard TD pass... quarterback Billy Cundiff (Uniontown, OH/Connecticut) completed 26-of-35 passes last week. That's the most completions by an AU signal-caller since John Szabo completed 27 throws against Findlay in 2002. Cundiff also rushed for 50 yards, one yard shy of his career high. A year ago, Cundiff's high for completions was 20...junior defensive back Tarrell Lewis (Redford, MI/Bowling Green) returned a fumble 33 yards for a TD. That's the first time an AU player brought back a fumble for a score since linebacker Chris Campbell rambled 25 yards with a drop against Northern Michigan in 2004...Ashland had 21-point leads against Bloomsburg in the first quarter and with just over a minute to go in the first half, but couldn't hold off the Huskies in the second half. In the second half, AU had the ball for just 11:34. BU outscored the Eagles, 35-7 in the second half...junior tailback Dawon Harvey (Columbus, OH/Central State) rushed for 72 yard and 3 touchdowns last week. Dating back to last season, Harvey has rushed for 9 touchdowns in his last four games.

Ferris State - The Ferris offense scored two early touchdowns and the Bulldog defense came up with a big stop on a potential game-winning field goal attempt late in the fourth quarter as FSU escaped with a narrow 14-12 victory to open the 2008 campaign and its 100th season of varsity action last Saturday (Aug. 30) over the Tiffin Dragons in a non-league tilt at Frost-Kalnow Stadium in Tiffin, Ohio. The contest represented the first-ever series' meeting between the two teams. FSUredshirt freshman quarterback Tom Schneider (Jerome/Addison)threw a TDpass and ran for another score while making his collegiate debut in the season-opening triumph. Ferris State scored on its first two offensive possessions and the Bulldog defensive unit forced three turnovers while limiting the Dragons to minus three yards rushing in the win...The 2008 campaign represents the Bulldogs' 100th season of varsity competition. The program actually began in 1900, but no football was played in 1908-09, 1917-18, 1932 and from 1942-45 for various reasons. Additionally, no scores are available from either the 1912 or 1916 seasons. Ferris has posted an all-time record of 361-403-40 (.474) to date following Saturday's win at Tiffin.

Findlay - The Oilers defeated Urbana University 26-0 on the road in their first game of the season...The win marks the seventh straight year the Oilers opened their season at 1-0... Findlay also ran their streak of shutout victories to open a season to two as they defeated the University of Charleston 20-0 last year in Donnell Stadium...Findlay forced three turnovers, scored a defensive touchdown and blocked a punt for a safety in the victory... Sophomore linebacker Brandon Craft scored a touchdown on a 25 yard fumble return...He also tallied a career-high eight tackles to lead the team...As a team, the Oilers made 12 tackles for a loss and three sacks coming from Bates, junior defensive lineman E.J. Whitlow and senior defensive lineman Justin Lyons...Junior quarterback Anthony Lanzara threw for career-high 177 yards and a score while completing 16-of-31 passes...Junior wide receiver Mike Chambers hauled in six receptions for 93 yards and a score.

Hillsdale - The Hillsdale College football team got the 2008 season to a near-flawless start, defeating St. Joseph's College 49-6...It was the fourth home-opening win in the past five years for Hillsdale, and the Chargers have scored 34 or more points in each of those four wins...Hillsdale has won its last two home openers by a combined score of 108-9, a streak that includes last season's 59-3 win over Gannon...The Chargers set a school record with 37 first downs, seven more than the previous record, set in 1989...The Hillsdale defense held the Pumas to just two first downs in the entire game...Two of freshman punter Andrew Wilburn's four punts covered 62 and 61 yards, and he finished the game with four punts for an average of 51.2 yards per punt...Redshirt-freshmen David Bakker and Nick Hixson shared the team lead with five total tackles each, and they were both making their first college appearances...Two other redshirt-freshmen, Nate English and Ridge Riebold, each had four total tackles ...Sophomore QB Troy Weatherhead made his first collegiate start, and finished 19-for-22 for 237 yards and two touchdowns, all career-highs...Junior WR A.J. Kegg also set career-highs with nine receptions for 129 yards and twotouchdowns...The Charger defense had 12.5 tackles for loss as a team...Hillsdale defeated St. Joseph's 49-0 in their last meeting in 1995...Hillsdale makes its longest road trip of the season next weekend when it travels to Houghton to take on Michigan Tech University.

Indianapolis - The Greyhounds collectively rushed for 418 yards in the convincing win at Kentucky Wesleyan ... Five different ball carriers had 40 yards or more rushing ... Craig Jenkins (132) and Deontrai Campbell were each over the century mark in rushing (127) ... True freshman quarterback Rob Doyle accounted for three scores in the win, throwing for two and running in for the third ... Jenkins also found the endzone three times, two on the ground and one on a catch from Doyle ... UIndy is now 11-4 in season openers under head coach Joe Polizzi, including wins in 11 of the past 13.

Michigan Tech - Steve Short (Iron Mountain, Mich./Kingsford) set a school record for completion percentage by going 24-of-28 vs. Winona State last Saturday (Aug. 30). The junior quarterback's 85.7 percent mark surpassed Scott Kieser's 84.6 percent (11-of-13) from Sept. 9, 1995. Short has set four school records in two career games vs. Winona. He broke the records for passing yards (431) total offensive yards (504) and passing touchdowns (six) in last year's season opener at Winona ... Senior wide receiver Keith White (Rhinelander, Wis.) caught 11 passes for 100 yards and a touchdown last Saturday (Aug. 30). The 6-4, 225-pound co-captain now has 94 career receptions - good for a tie for 10th all-time at Michigan Tech ... Tech debuted its new synthetic turf in front of the eighth-largest crowd in Sherman Field history ... Junior wide receiver Bobby Slowik (Green Bay, Wis./Southwest) had a breakout game with a career-high seven passes for 81 yards and two touchdowns vs. Winona State. The 5-10, 175-pound Slowik had just 33 receptions and four touchdowns in his career prior to Saturday ... Tech opens its 2008 season with three home games for the first time since 1975 ... Last Saturday's win at home gives the Huskies a 19-4 record (82.6 percent) in their last 23 games at Sherman Field.

Tiffin - Tiffin University opened its 2008 season with a narrow 14-12 loss to visiting Ferris State, a game that boasted strong defense from both sides and came down to the closing minutes to reach a decision... Tiffin opened scoring on their first possession, driving 74 yards on 8 plays in 3:45 as quarterback Matt Root hit receiver Greg Raspberry on a 27 yard pass to take a quick 6-0 lead. TU's kick was blocked, starting a recurring theme as the Dragons kicking game struggled all day... Tiffin missed a golden opportunity just before halftime to get closer when, after Matt Root engineered a drive all the way to the Ferris State 2-yard line, a fumbled snap turned the ball over and cost the Dragons a potential touchdown. The score remained 14-6 at the half... After that both team's defenses took over. The Dragons defense registered 5 sacks, a forced fumble, and an interception, while the Bulldogs had 2 sacks, an interception, and forced 5 fumbles with 2 recoveries. Tiffin could not get its rushing game going, as the strong defensive line of the Bulldogs held TU to -3 yards on the ground... Tiffin's Matt Root connected on 28 of 51 passes for 260 of TU's 257 total offensive yards... The Dragons defense continued to play well, holding FSU to 102 yards of offense after halftime. Parris Burt led the way with 17 total tackles. Joe Crawford had 11 tackles with a sack, Steve Yarbough had 10 tackles with a sack and 3 tackles for loss, and Drew Douthit had 10 tackles with 1.5 sacks and 3 tackles for loss... Raspberry led the Dragons offense with 108 yards receiving and 2 touchdowns, while Dyshaun Edwards also had 54 yards receiving. The Dragons now take to the road at Findlay next week for their first GLIAC contest of the year.

Wayne State - Wayne State recorded a victory in its season opener for only the third time in the last 15 years (38-21 win over Gannon in 2003, and a 36-14 triumph at Michigan Tech in 2006) with Saturday's 14-10 triumph over Mercyhurst ... the last WSU squad to start 2-0 was 1976 (31-14 win over Howard at RFK Stadium followed by a 29-0 victory over Northwood) ... of the 49 players seeing action in the win over Mercyhurst, 17 were making their collegiate debut including six true freshmen (WSU used only two true freshmen in 2007) ... the victory also gave Wayne State a home win after last year's squad managed a 1-4 mark at Adams Field ... the Warrior defense blanked the Lakers in the second half marking the first time since a 30-3 win at Gannon on October 7, 2006, that the WSU defense shut out an opponent for a half ... the Wayne State offense recorded 178 yards of total offense marking the first time since a 19-17 win over Hillsdale on October 13, 2001, that WSU won a game with less than 200 yards of total offense (Hillsdale out-gained the Warriors 401-172) ... senior Dante Dunn's (Lansing, Mich./Waverly) 93-yard kickoff return for a touchdown was the fourth longest in WSU history and was Dunn's third kickoff return for a score in his last 16 games ... senior kicker David Chudzinski (Belleville, Mich.) became WSU's all-time leader in points by a kicker with his first PAT versus Mercyhurst ... Troy Burrell's (Port Huron, Mich.) touchdown catch came on his second career reception in his first collegiate game ... last Saturday's crowd of 2,705 was the highest for a home opener since 1982 when the Tartars defeated Albion 14-13 in front of 3,154 ... it was also the first of three television games for Wayne State in 2008 (the other two will be Sept. 27 - Tiffin at Wayne State on Comcast Television; and Oct. 4 - Wayne State at Ashland on SportsTime Ohio).