Washburn’s Perry Schmiedeler and Derrick McGreevy earned MIAA weekly honors on Monday after playing key roles in the Ichabods’ 35-20 win at Pittsburg State this past Saturday.
Schmiedeler, WU’s junior kicker, was responsible for arguably the biggest play of the game, recovering his onside kick midway through the third quarter. WU scored on the next play to go up 21-17 and stayed in front the rest of the way.
"We execute it in practice all the time, and coach (Zach) Watkins said, ‘Hey, we may have this against them, the way they do their return,’ " WU coach Craig Schurig said of the decision to go for the onside kick. "Perry’s really good at it, so that’s the biggest reason. The only thing that made me nervous was that we needed another roll, and he got it. But we practice it all the time and he’s always able to do it."
Schmiedeler, a Washburn Rural product, also averaged 40.8 yards per punt on six attempts Saturday.
McGreevy, a junior linebacker from Hayden, recorded a career-high 16 tackles against Pitt State and leads the MIAA with 60 stops on the season. He shared the defensive honor with Fort Hays State linebacker Jose Delgado, who had 14 tackles in the Tigers’ 38-35 win at Lindenwood.
UCO quarterback Chas Stallard was the offensive player of the week after throwing for 442 yards on 32-of-49 passing, tying a school record with six touchdowns in a 53-52 win over Emporia State.
Washburn, which received votes in the American Football Coaches Association Poll again this week, will play host to 0-5 Missouri Southern at 1 p.m. on Saturday in WU’s Hall of Fame game at Yager Stadium. The Lions are coming off a 16-6 loss at Nebraska-Kearney.
"In certain games, like against Emporia (36-29 loss), they played really well," Schurig said of the Lions. "There’s some other games where they haven’t played well, but they do a lot of different things so we’ll have our work cut out."
Washburn’s Hall of Fame class, which is comprised of former WU football player Trey Lewis and former women’s basketball players Brooke (Ubelaker) Terick and Carla Sintra-Freeman, will be recognized during halftime after being enshrined in a breakfast ceremony in WU’s Memorial Union.
Lewis was an All-America defensive lineman who played for the Ichabods from 2003-06 before playing in 31 games for the Atlanta Falcons from 2007-11.
"We’re going to start getting some of our guys in (the WU Hall of Fame)," Schurig said. "We should, every year now, have football guys in that hall of fame from this group over the last 16 years, which is a lot of fun for me."