BOURBONNAIS, Ill. – Six members of the Olivet Nazarene University football team earned first team all-conference honors as the Mid-States Football Association announced its Midwest League awards Monday morning.
Evan Leake was recognized twice on the Midwest League's first team, repeating as the conference's first-team punter while being selected as a first-team running back for the second time in his career. Ray Coffey and Blake Lamb joined him as offensive first-team selections, and Daniel Real and Chase Balser on first-team special teams. Brock Deardorff was ONU's lone first-team defensive selection.
ONU also had seven members earn second-team recognition - Aaron Bennett, JT Price, Austin Sitz, Michael Roath, John Harman, Abe Flores-Cuen, and Gavin Lentz.
Leake, a senior from Mt. Vernon, Ill., marked his fourth and fifth overall selections on the all-MSFA postseason award list. The running back and return specialist finished with 1389 all-purpose yards in nine games played, good for a 154.3 yards-per-game average. Leake was third in the league in touchdowns scored with 12 while racking up 564 kick return yards and a touchdown.
Lamb was third in the MSFA Midwest with nine touchdown grabs, serving as the team's go-to receiver from the tight end position. The two-time first-team selection from Cincinnati, Ohio led the team in receptions with 40 to go with his team-leading nine scores while finishing second on the squad with 617 receiving yards.
Coffey made his first appearance on the all-MSFA postseason honor roll after leading ONU with 717 yards over 35 receptions this season. The junior wideout from Chicago, Ill., found the endzone six times this year and ranked fourth in the Midwest league with his 79.7 receiving yards per game average.
Deardorff also earned his first all-MSFA selection this season after racking up 26 tackles across nine games played. The senior defensive back from Mundelein, Ill., led the Tigers with 11 pass breakups, recorded one-and-a-half tackles for loss, and snagged one interception to earn first-team distinction.
Real, a sophomore kicker from Enid, Okla., and Balser, a sophomore long-snapper from Westville, Ohio, combined for a plethora of points to round out the quartet of Tigers making their first appearances on the all-MSFA first team. Real was successful on 26 of his 29 extra-point attempts and was named the MSFA Midwest Special Teams Player of the Week on Nov. 4 with Balser snapping him the football all season long.
Bennett earned his first recognition as a second-team all-MSFA running back. The sophomore from Bronx, N.Y., tallied 576 rushing yards on 85 carries and scored a pair of touchdowns this season. He was able to do a lot of his damage behind Price and Sitz, who were both named second-team selections on the offensive line. Price is now a four-time all-MSFA selection while Sitz makes his first appearance on the postseason honor roll.
The ONU defense was well-represented on the MSFA Midwest league's second team. Roath landed on the team as ONU's primary gap-closer on the defensive line, with the senior from South Elgin, Ill., racking up 13 total tackles, 2.5 sacks, and 3.5 tackles for loss for 19 yards across 10 games played this season.
Linebacker duo Harman and Flores-Cuen both earned second-team recognition for the second consecutive year after leading the ONU defense in total tackles and tackles for loss. Harman, from Stoughton, Wis., was the team leader in both categories (68 tackles, 8 TFL) while Flores-Cuen, a Yuma, Ariz., native, was second in tackles (51) and third in TFL (6).
Lentz earned his first all-MSFA selection after serving as the team's primary punter this season. The sophomore Phoenix, Ariz., native averaged 37.1 yards per punt on 39 kicks, pinning opposing teams inside the 20-yard line eight times.
Three other Tigers received all-MSFA honorable mention. Hunter Ah Loo, a junior linebacker from Honolulu, Hawaii, racked up 35 total tackles and shared the team lead in interceptions with two while scoring a pair of defensive touchdowns. De'Shayvion McRath, a graduate from Evansville, Ind., led ONU in sacks with four and finished the season with 4.5 tackles for loss. Andrew-Lee Smith, a senior running back from Aina Haina, Hawaii, recorded 175 rushing yards on 21 carries and scored a pair of touchdowns.
View the entire list of MSFA-Midwest selections HERE.
--ONU—
*Contact: Evan Wild, Sports Information Director, ewwild@olivet.edu