Mitch Hendricks has been named the MIAC Football Offensive Player of the Week for the second time this season.
St. Paul – Thanks to his standout passing performance in Saturday’s 48-19 victory over Hamline University, Gustavus Adolphus quarterback Mitch Hendricks (Jr., Laporte, Minn.) has been honored by the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference as the Football Offensive Player-of-the-Week.
Hendricks, who receives the MIAC’s weekly honor for the second time this season, was again efficient and surgical in his dissection of the opposition’s secondary. After a pair of showings that saw him go 23-for-28 for 281 yards with five touchdowns against Crown in week one, and 32-for-41 for 356 yards with four touchdowns against Lake Forest in week two, Hendricks raised the bar with his best performance to date on Saturday. Against a then unbeaten Hamline team, he threw four touchdown passes and completed 72.1-percent (31-43) of his passes for a school-record 443 yards. With 443 yards through the air, Hendricks became just the second quarterback in program history to surpass the 400-yard mark in a game. The former record was held by Dean Kraus ’89 and set in 1985 when he torched Bethel for 403 yards.
The junior connected with seven different receivers throughout the course of the afternoon and finished just two completions shy of Gustavus’s single-game record. His top two targets were the Gabriel Boyce (Jr., Excelsior, Minn.) and Matt Boyce (Jr., Excelsior, Minn.) who combined for 18 catches and a total of 199 yards. Matt Boyce caught two of his touchdown strikes, while both Boyce twins brought in season-long grabs of 40 yards.
Through the opening three games of the 2014 season, Gustavus boasts the fifth ranked passing offense in the nation and is averaging 44.7 points per game (12th/NCAA). On an individual level, Hendricks leads NCAA Division III with a completion percentage of 76.8-percent (86-112) and is averaging 28.7 completions per game (6th/NCAA). He ranks third in passing touchdowns (13) and passing yards (1,080), fourth in passing efficiency (196.1), and fifth in passing yards per game (360). The Laporte, Minnesota product is responsible for an average of 28 points per game (4th/NCAA) and an average of 371 yards of total offense (5th/NCAA).
The Gustavus football team will be back in action on Saturday in a battle between the top two passing teams in the league. The Hendricks-led air attack will match up against quarterback Ayrton Scott and the potent Augsburg offense at 1:00 p.m. at Edor Nelon Field in Minneapolis. Gustavus is 3-0 for the first time since 2007, while Augsburg heads into the weekend at 2-1 overall and 1-0 in the MIAC after defeating Carleton 42-14 on Saturday in Northfield.
WONDERFUL GAME. LOVE THE AIR RAID!!!!! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK. GO GUSTIES!!!!!