LANCASTER, Pa. --- Moravian College junior running back Chris Negron has been named the Centennial Conference Offensive Player of the Week and sophomore running back/kick returner Eli Redmond has been honored as the Co-Special Teams Player of the Week for their performances in the Greyhounds' 55-38 win at Dickinson College on Saturday.
Negron set a Centennial Conference record and tied the Moravian school record with six rushing touchdowns in the game as he racked up his fourth career 200-yard game, picking up 221 yards on 34 carries. Negron scored on touchdown runs of 23, 8, 10, 20, 2 and 6 yards, the final score coming with 1:42 remaining in the game to tie the Greyhounds' record for touchdowns in a game. Negron also caught one pass for 23 yards in the victory.
With his 221 rushing yards, Negron moved from seventh to third in school history with 2,450 yards on 471 carries, which is sixth in the record books. Negron has also scored 25 rushing touchdowns, tied for third in school history, and he is fourth with 27 career touchdowns and fifth with 162 points. His 36 points on Saturday tied for second most in a single game with James McConologue, who had six touchdowns at Hartwick College in 1939, the last player to score six times in a game, and Charles Mazza, who was the first to score six touchdowns in a single contest in 1936 at Juniata College. James Fritchman is the other player to score six times in a single game, and he added a two-point conversion for 38 points at CCNY in 1938.
"It was an amazing effort by Chris to get six touchdowns and run for over 200 yards yesterday," commented Head Coach Jeff Pukszyn. "Chris gives 100 percent all the time, especially in games and it paid off Saturday. The offensive line was doing a great job making the running lanes available for Chris. His vision was unbelievable and some of the cuts he made to get into the holes were tremendous."
Redmond gave the Greyhounds a quick touchdown lead just 14 seconds into the game when he took the opening kickoff on Saturday and returned it 98 yards up the middle for his second career kickoff return touchdown. Redmond set a Moravian and Centennial Conference record a year ago with a 100-yard kickoff return. At Dickinson, Redmond returned a total of four kickoffs for 154 yards, and he added three receptions for 34 yards including a 21-yard touchdown catch-and-run and 37 yards on the ground on 10 rushing attempts for 225 all-purpose yards in the game.
"Eli's opening return is the type of start gives you a boost to start any game," noted Pukszyn. "Our kickoff return team worked hard last week with coach Bob McClarin because we felt that we had missed some opportunities for big returns in some earlier games. Eli and the rest of the group are really coachable and worked hard to get it done. Eli is also a big contributor throughout our game plan, and really made a number of guys miss on this touchdown reception."
Moravian will close out the first half of its 2015 season on Saturday, October 3 when the Greyhounds host Ursinus College in a Centennial Conference game kicking off at 1:00 p.m. at Rocco Calvo Field.