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MOREHEAD, Ky. – Nine Morehead State Eagles have earned 2011 Pioneer Football League postseason honors, including three individuals who were named to the league’s first team.
Junior wide receiver Donte Sawyer, senior defensive end Jerome Raymond and junior kicker/punter Rainer Duzan were named to the first team, while senior fullback Desmond Cox and senior linebacker Tony Bachman were named to the second team.
Junior quarterback Zach Lewis, senior halfback Ronnie McDermott, junior offensive lineman Joey Clegg and junior offensive lineman Eric Matteson also picked up honorable-mention accolades.
Sawyer set Morehead State single season (12) and career (16) records for touchdowns catches, plus led the PFL in that category this past year. He finished the 2011 campaign with 60 catches for 904 yards. Sawyer ranked third in the conference in receiving yards per game (82.2) and fourth in scoring. He also posted five games of 100-plus receiving yards.
Raymond finished fourth in the league with 11.5 sacks and tallied 15.5 tackles for loss to rank eighth. He also forced a pair of fumbles and blocked a kick. Raymond closes out his career with 27 sacks and 41 tackles for loss to rank among Morehead State’s all-time best defenders.
Duzan earns first-team honors for the second straight year. He established the MSU career record for field goals in the season opener and continued to add to it. Duzan finished the year 12-of-17 on FG attempts and went 49-of-51 on PAT tries. He led the team and ranked third in the PFL in scoring with 85 points. Duzan also earned PFL Special Teams Player of the Week accolades three times.
Cox rushed for 956 yards and nine touchdowns in his final college season. He also amassed 323 receiving yards and took two catches to the end zone. Cox ranked second in the PFL in rushing yards to finish his career with 1,783 on the ground. He earned PFL Offensive Player of the Week honors after rushing for a career-high 218 yards in the season finale against Butler, which included a school-record 92-yard touchdown burst.
Bachman wraps up a record-setting career at MSU with 107 more tackles in 2011. He ranked second in the PFL in overall stops this past year (9.7 tpg). He finishes his four seasons in an Eagle uniform with a school-record 304 tackles.
Lewis, who set the MSU single-season record for passing yards (3.585), led the conference in total offense (313.5 ypg) and ranked second in touchdown passes (28). He also finished with Eagle single-season records for completions (324) and attempts (513), plus recorded a league-best eight games of 300-plus passing yards.
McDermott caught 46 passes for 525 yards a trio of scores this season. He finished his four-year career ranked among MSU’s top 20 receivers all-time with 126 catches for 1,516 yards.
Clegg, a center, and Matteson, a right tackle, helped Morehead State rank first among all Football Championship Subdivision schools in first downs (25.2) and fourth in total yards (478.9).
In pass protection, the pair teamed up to allow the Eagles to rank second nationally in passing yards. They also blocked for Cox, who nearly chalked up 1,000 yards in the ground game.
Morehead State finished the campaign 3-8 overall and 2-6 in the PFL. Half of MSU’s eight defeats came in heartbreaking fashion, by less than five points.
