MCAC Football Post-Season: Players-of-the-Week

Posted: Oct 31, 2017

Rochester, Mn-

With only eight teams competing in the most recent MCAC football weekend, a combined Player-of-the-Week release for the MCAC Playoffs is available below. Several teams put together strong performances on Sunday, October 29th, and some of the leading individual outings were honored with POW recognition.

Offensive Player-of-the-Week:

DeRante Sanders galloped for an impressive 162 yards on 26 carries for Dakota College-Bottineau in their 20-9 MCAC Quarterfinal win over Ridgewater College. Sanders broke off a longest run of 40 yards, averaged 6.2 yards per carry and had a touchdown for the Jacks. The sophomore from Lexington, Kentucky, is fourth in the Minnesota College Athletic Conference in yards per game (78.9) and is second in rushing touchdowns with 10, behind teammate Elijah Todd. Sanders and his DCB teammates will host Mesabi Range College on Saturday, November 4th at Noon in Bottineau, North Dakota. The winner of the contest will advance to the MCAC State Championship Football game, to be held on the campus of St. Cloud State University on Sunday, November 12th.

Defensive Co-Players-of-the-Week:

Danilson Da Veiga-Semedo, a linebacker for Vermillion Community College found himself having to work solo on Sunday, in the VCC 24-8 season-ending loss to the Central Lakes College Raiders. Da Veiga-Semedo had nine tackles- all solo stops - including a tackle-for-loss for the Ironmen. Da Veiga-Semedo finished his year ranked third in the MCAC tackles-per-game, averaging 11 tackles a contest for Vermilion.

Dunkin Westrich, a sophomore linebacker from Kimball, Minnesota was all over the field for the Central Lakes College defense on Sunday. Westrich picked up three solo tackles, two sacks and an additional tackle-for-loss for the Raiders. He also forced a fumble and had a fumble recovery in the CLC 24-8 victory, helping push them into the MCAC Football semi-final round. Central Lakes will host Northland CTC on Saturday, November 4th at 1:30pm in Brainerd, for the opportunity to advance to the MCAC State Championship. The MCAC Football Championship is held on the campus of St. Cloud State University on Sunday, November 12th.

Special Teams Player-of-the-Week:

Northland Community & Technical College was held to their lowest point total of 2017 by North Dakota State College of Science, but still prevailed 17-10 over the Wildcats. Pioneer kicking specialist, Dontae Ensley was valuable to his team in the closely contested battle, both in terms of scoring points as a placekicker and in pinning the NDSCS offense deep in their own territory with his punting prowess. Ensley was a perfect 2-for-2 on PAT's and connected on a season-long 37 yard field goal in tough kicking conditions for NCTC. When faced with fourth down, Northland called on Ensley to punt seven times for a total of 214 yards, with a long of 42 and one kick placed inside the 20. The Cedar Springs, Michigan product also hit four kickoffs for a total of 208 yards. For his efforts, Dontae Ensley is the MCAC Special Teams Player-of-the-Week.