After playing instrumental roles in the Bethany College football team's win over Geneva Saturday, junior quarterback Matt Grimard and sophomore punter Stephen Amic were selected as the PAC's Offensive and Special Teams Players of the Week, respectively.
Grimard, who has now earned the PAC Player of the Week honor three times in his career, completed 23 passes for a career-high 343 passing yards and four touchdowns and rushed for another in Saturday's 42-36 overtime win over the Golden Tornadoes. It looked like Grimard gave the Bison the win in regulation when he ran for a five-yard touchdown with 18 seconds on the clock, but then Geneva completed a Hail Mary pass to the end zone on the last play of regulation to forced overtime.
After a Bethany interception on the Golden Tornadoes first possession in OT, Grimard ended the game when he tossed a 24-yard scoring pass to senior WR Ed Holmes to give Bethany its first overtime win in program history. In addition to the two late touchdowns, Grimard also tossed scoring passes of 34, 29 and 60 yards during the game on his way to the career-best passing yardage total.
The final scoring pass pushed Grimard over 5,000 yards for his career (5,001) and he will enter this Saturday's game against PAC leading Waynesburg with a chance to break the school's all-time record for total offense. With 5,557 yards already, Grimard needs only 144 more to surpass Bob Fromm's mark of 6,700 total yards set during his career from 1994-97.
"Matt made some very big plays for us on Saturday and we're counting on him to continue to do that in the second half of the season," said Bethany head coach Tim Weaver. "The key was that he protected the ball and didn't try to do too much. We're really happy that he's gotten recognition for his efforts on Saturday in our great homecoming win."
Amic has also won multiple Player of the Week accolades in his career, as he was chosen for the distinction once last year as a freshman. His award this year came after he averaged 40.7 over seven punts and put five inside the Geneva 20-yard line Saturday. Two of his punts were downed at the GT one-yard line, including a booming 62-yard kick. Another two punts were downed at the Geneva six and another was taken at the 11.
For the season, Amic has dropped 10 punts inside the opponents' 20-yard line, which is the third most in the conference, and he has three punts of 50+ yards. Amic's 62-yard yard kick was only his second longest of the year, as he owns the longest punt by any PAC booter this fall with his 63-yard effort in the Washington & Jefferson game Sept. 29th.
"Stephen has been able to concentrate on punting this season and it's shown," said Weaver. "He's got a ton of ability and he fought through some nagging injuries through the first couple of weeks. But he's healthy now and has been great the last two weeks. We're proud of him for what he's done for the team and excited about his future."