KILLINGWORTH, Conn. — Gallaudet freshman defensive back Zefan Nathanson (Manor, Texas) has been named to the D3football.com Team of the Week, as announced by the organization.
Last week in Gallaudet's 26-23 victory over Dean, Nathanson only recorded one stat but it may have been the biggest one.
The freshman special teamer lined up with 3:26 left in the fourth quarter with Gallaudet down 23-18 as Dean faced fourth-and-6 at its own 19-yard line. When the ball was snapped, Nathanson busted through the right side of the line and leaped to lay out and block the punt made by Enrico Hernandez at the 8-yard line. The ball bounced into the Dean end zone where GU recovered the ball and took its first lead of the game at 24-23.
The Bison also converted the two-point conversion to take a 26-23 lead with minutes left as Gallaudet completed the comeback after it trailed 23-6 in the third quarter.
The D3football.com Team of the Week, presented by Scoutware, is D3football.com's weekly honor roll, which is currently in its 24th season of recognizing the top performance at each position from the previous week.
Nathanson was one of 26 student-athletes chosen to the D3football.com's weekly honor roll among all 240 NCAA Division III programs across the country.
Student-athletes are nominated by their school's sports information directors.
This is Nathanson's first career D3football.com Team of the Week honor.
Earlier this week, Nathanson also received Eastern Collegiate Football Conference (ECFC) Co-Rookie of the Week honors for his performance against Dean.
The ECFC has now had four student-athletes claim D3football.com Team of the Week accolades this season.
Nathanson is joined on the list by Alfred State senior safety Rylie Van Fleet (Endwell, N.Y.), Anna Maria senior wide receiver Justin McMillian (Middletown, Conn.), and Gallaudet sophomore slotback Brandon Washington (Citronelle, Ala.).
About the ECFC
The Eastern Collegiate Football Conference was formed in the spring of 2009 as an NCAA Division III single-sport football conference. The conference, named after the geographic location of the institutions began competition in the fall of 2009.
Current members are Alfred State College (Alfred, NY), Anna Maria College (Worcester, MA), Castleton University (Castleton, VT.), Dean College (Franklin, MA), Gallaudet University (Washington, D.C.), Keystone College (La Plume, PA), and Maritime College State University of New York (Throggs Neck, NY).
The mission of the conference is to:
- Promote intercollegiate varsity football as an integral part of the educational experience of all competitors.
- Establish a conference schedule and determine a conference championship that will represent the conference as the automatic qualifier to the NCAA national tournament.
- Adopt sportsmanship, fair play, moral integrity, and competitive excellence as cornerstones of the conference.
