NEWTON, Mass. – Mount Ida placed fifteen student-athletes on the All-Eastern Collegiate Football Conference (ECFC) teams announced on Thursday morning, the most of any team in the league, including six Mustangs named First Team at their positions.
Four defensive standouts were selected to First Team for Mount Ida, including defensive linemen Anthony Sanders (Meriden, Conn.) and Dominick Spaulding (W. Hartford, Conn.), linebacker Sean Chinova (Watertown, Conn.), and defensive back Jovan Wilkins (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.).
The First Team Offense selections were sophomore wide receiver Matt Greenman (Portstmouth, R.I.) and offensive lineman Andrew Miller (Allentown, Pa.).
Running back Melquan Pinkney (Springfield, Mass.) joined linebacker Kalyn Smithson (Vilseck, Germany) and punter Devin Broadley (Hyannis, Mass.) on the ECFC Second Team.
Mount Ida also had six players named as Honorable Mentions – offensive linemen David Bednarz (Middletown, Conn.) and Troy Lawrence (West Haven, Conn.), quarterback Jawad Yatim (Shrewsbury, Mass.), kicker Tyler Rodgers (Bridgewater, Mass.), defensive lineman Derek Bent (Billerica, Mass.), and tight end Mike Green (Matawan, N.J.).
Wilkins makes his fourth appearance as an All-Conference player, and his third straight First Team award. He continued to be one of the most difficult players to throw against this season, with four interceptions and five pass breakups. He had two picks, including one to seal the game in the final seconds, against Anna Maria, and also forced a fumble in that game. Wilkins ends his career with 18 interceptions, far and away the statistical leader in Mount Ida history.
Sanders and Spaulding combined to form one of the most formidable defensive lines in the league. Spaulding racked up 10.5 sacks to lead the conference, and 17 of his 45 tackles went for a loss, placing him 22nd in the country in tackles for a loss per game (1.9). He led the conference in yards from tackles for a loss (78) and in forced fumbles, with four. Against Becker, Spaulding had three sacks and set a new Mount Ida record with eight tackles for a loss.
Sanders recorded double-digit tackles in three games, and had 8.5 tackles for a loss and two sacks on the season. His 73 total tackles from the nose guard position was tied for 12th in the conference. Sanders and Spaulding were both Honorable Mention honorees for the first time a year ago.
Chinova is making his first appearance on the All Conference list in his sophomore season, and deservedly so, after he led the conference with 112 tackles. He was tied for 24th in all of Division 3 in tackles per game, and along the way he managed a fumble force and recovery, a sack, an interception, a pass breakup and a pair of blocked kicks that led directly to a 14-12 win at Anna Maria. Chinova had 14+ tackles in four games this year, including 15 to start the season against UMass Dartmouth and to end the year against Husson.
Miller solidified his standing as one of the top lineman in the league with his third All-Conference nod, getting a First Team mention for the first time in his senior season. Miller led the Mount Ida front line as a team captain this year, and helped block for a rushing attack that averaged over 120 yards per game on the ground.
Much of that ground attack came from Pinkney, who gets his first All-Conference selection in a year in which he averaged 67.2 yards per game, an average of 4.0 yards per carry, good for fourth in the conference. Pinkney scored three touchdowns, two of them in a win over Castleton, in which he ran 28 times for 104 yards. His season high came the week before, when he picked up 138 yards on the ground at Norwich.
Back on the other side of the ball, Smithson returns to the Second Team for the second straight year, his third as an All-Conference selection. The preseason All-American racked up 59 tackles, 11.5 for a loss, and three sacks, as well as two forced fumbles and two recoveries. He preserved a win for Mount Ida at Gallaudet with a pair of forced fumbles that led directly to the Mustang's 10 points, including knocking the ball loose with the Bison at the one yard line and ready to punch in a go-ahead score.
As a freshman, Broadley led the conference in average yards per punt (35.8), and punts downed inside the 20, with 17. He downed four inside the twenty against both Becker and Anna Maria, and was named ECFC Rookie of the Week after booming nine punts against the Hawks.
Yatim threw for 114.9 yards per game with 97 completions, both good for third in the ECFC, and co-led the conference with 12 touchdown passes.
Rodgers was perfect on three field goal attempts, including a long of 41 yards, kicked 16 extra points, and also accounted for a touchdown and a two-point conversion on two different pitch plays. His score and subsequent point after were all the scoring Mount Ida needed in a 7-6 conference win over Maritime.
Bent's senior season was the best of his career, as he racked up 39 tackles and had five sacks, good for second on the team. Bent had three of those sacks against Becker, helping Mount Ida set a single-game program record with nine sacks. Bent also had four pass breakups and five and a half tackles for a loss in his final campaign.
Lawrence, in his senior season, and Bednarz, in his Mount Ida debut, were solid members of the Mustang offensive line, as was the tight end Green, who caught one pass on the season in addition to fulfilling his blocking duties.
This marks the third consecutive season in which Mount Ida has put fifteen or more players on the All-ECFC teams. The Mustangs finished the year with a 5-5 record and a 5-2 mark in ECFC play, coming up just shy of securing the team's second conference title in three years.