LANCASTER, Pa. --- Moravian College junior linebacker Edward Delia and junior quarterback Mike Hayes have been honored as the Centennial Conference Special Teams and Offensive Player of the Week for their performances in the Greyhounds' 35-32 win over Gettysburg College on Saturday.
The win was the fifth straight for the Hounds and improved the squad's overall record to 7-1 on the season and 6-1 in Centennial Conference action as Moravian sits in second place in the conference.
It didn't take long for Delia to make his presence felt on special teams on Saturday as he blocked the Bullets' first punt of the game on the fourth play of the contest. The Hounds recovered the ball at the Gettysburg 9-yard line and scored to take a quick 7-0 lead. On the Bullets' next drive, Delia once again raced up the middle and blocked a second straight punt just 5:15 into action as the Greyhounds offense started with another short field. Delia is the first Moravian player to block more than one punt in a game since Matt Sheridan blocked three punts at King's College on September 17, 2005. Delia came close to getting his hands on two more punts later in the contest.
"We asked Ed to make the transition from running back to linebacker this season, and he has done so with tremendous poise," stated Head Coach Jeff Pukszyn. "Ed is truly a team player and has picked up some more responsibility on special teams as well this fall. He is big and physical kid, and he showed a lot of determination on Saturday. Gettysburg spreads their punt formation so we know we could get a rush towards the shield guys, and then it was just a matter of knocking them into the punter. The first block was on a straight punt and the second punt was a rugby style so Ed did a great job following a ball and throwing his body in front of the kick."
Hayes completed a career-high 23 passes in 30 attempts for 241 yards as he became the eighth quarterback in school history to reach 3,000 career passing yards. The 30 attempts marked the fourth time this season that Hayes has thrown 30 passes in a game, and it is the eighth time in his career that he's thrown the ball at least 30 times. Hayes has three 200-yard passing games this fall, all during the current winning streak, and he has six 200-yard games in his career. Against the Bullets, Hayes threw three touchdown passes of 26, 7 and 20 yards to raise his season total to 12 touchdown passes against just five interceptions. Hayes has thrown 25 career touchdown passes, and he has four career games with three touchdown passes.
"Mike played another good game for us on Saturday as he has all season," Pukszyn said. "I felt he did a good job distributing the ball around to the wide receivers and running backs, even keeping it to pick up some yardage on the zone read. Mike has worked very hard on his passing, and being able to throw three touchdown passes in a game makes us more than a one dimensional team and that much harder to defend because Mike has become a dual threat on the field."
Moravian will close out its three-game home stand on Saturday, November 7 when the Greyhounds welcome Juniata College to Rocco Calvo Field. Kickoff is slated for 12:00 p.m. on Moravian's Senior Day and Hall of Fame celebration.
