ECAC Athletes-of-the-Week - Sept. 18, 2012
The Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) announced its Athletes-of-the-Week for their performances during the week of Sept. 10-16. This week three student-athletes from the Empire 8 claimed honors.
The Metro/Upstate Men’s Cross Country Runner of the week was claimed by Ithaca senior Nathan Bickell. Bickell clocked a personal-best eight-kilometer time of 25:54.90 to place 17th out of 333 runners on Saturday at the Rochester Yellowjacket Invitational. He led the Bombers to a ninth-place finish out of 24 teams.
This week’s Upstate Defensive Player of the Week honor went to Nazareth goalkeeper J.P. Horan. The sophomore totaled 11 saves in 180 minutes of action between the pipes as the Golden Flyers posted a pair of 3-1 wins. On Tuesday, Horan recorded six saves against Fredonia. The sophomore had five stops, including a diving save on a point-blank attempt in the 67th minute, in the conference win over Utica. Nazareth remains undefeated on the season at 5-0.
Buffalo State's Pasquale Vacchio was named Northwest Defensive Player of the Week after anchoring the Bengals' defense during the shocking 7-6 upset win at No. 1 in the nation UW-Whitewater on Saturday that snapped the Warhawks' 46-game winning streak. The senior linebacker tallied a career-best 19 tackles as Buffalo State limited the powerful offense to only two field goals, 311 total yards, and just 2.9 yards-per-rushing attempt. Vacchio was in on three tackles on UW-Whitewater's final full drive that limited the Warhawks' to a field goal, setting the stage for the Bengals' last-minute touchdown drive.
It was the second straight week an Empire 8 athlete earned each of the three awards.