University of Delaware Football Standouts Tunstall, Baner Earn Season's Final CAA Weekly Honors
File Photos Courtesy of Mark Campbell
November 23, 2011
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NEWARK, Del. -- University of Delaware football standouts captured half of the final weekly honors distributed by the Colonial Athletic Association earlier this week.
Junior safety Ricky Tunstall (Bridgeton, N.J./bottom left) was named the CAA Defensive Player of the Week while sophomore kicker Sean Baner (Southampton, Pa/at right) was selected as the CAA Special Teams Player of the Week. Both played key roles in Delaware’s season-ending 26-16 victory over Villanova last Saturday at PPL Park in Chester, Pa.
The victory gave Delaware the coveted Battle of the Blue Trophy for the first time as the Blue Hen snapped a five-game losing streak to the Wildcats (2-9).
Delaware earned seven weekly honors from the CAA during the 2011 season.
The Blue Hens finished the season with three straight victories and a 7-4 record, including a fifth place finish in the CAA with a 5-3 mark. Delaware narrowly missed earning one of 20 berths in the upcoming NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision Tournament which starts Saturday. The Hens finished the 2010 season as the FCS national runners-up.
Tunstall hauled in two interceptions in Delaware’s win in The Battle of Blue Saturday. His first interception came in the end zone to hold off a Villanova scoring threat while his second pick was returned 54 yards for a touchdown, and all but sealed the victory for the Blue Hens.
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Tunstall, who also made two stops on the day against the Wildcats, hauled in four interceptions over the last two games of 2011 for Delaware and finished with a team-high five during the campaign.
Baner was true on all four field goal attempts in the win over Villanova, logging boots of 26, 34, 40 and 29 yards in the contest. He finished with a career-high 14 total points on the day, the second highest total for a kicker in UD history.
The 40-yarder helped tie the contest a 16-16 with just under nine minutes to play, and the 29-yard kick put Delaware on top for good with just over two minutes left. He also converted both extra point attempts and finished the season as the only kicker in the CAA to be perfect on all of his extra point tries.
In addition to Tunstall and Baner, also winning weekly CAA award were Offensive Player of the Week Dae’Quan Scott of James Madison and CAA Defensive Rookie of the Week R. J. Harris of New Hampshire. Scott carried 30 times for 251 yards in a 34-17 win over Massachusetts while Harris caught six passes for 106 yards and two touchdowns in the Wildcats’ 30-27 win over New Hampshire.
