KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The MIAA has named its weekly Football Athletes of the Week. Emporia State’s Braxton Marstall was selected as the Offensive Athlete of the Week for the second consecutive week. Jose Delgado of Fort Hays State was named the conference’s Defensive Player of the Week. James Brania-Hopp of Washburn was tabbed with Special Teams Player of the Week Accolades.

Marstall had a season-high four touchdown passes and completed a season’s best 73.8 percent of his passes in a 48-0 win over Missouri Southern. He connected with 11 different Hornets, six of them for completions of at least ten yards and threw touchdown passes to four different players. After a scoreless first quarter, Marstall went 13 of 17 for 147 yards and two touchdowns in the second quarter and led the Hornets to four scoring drives in the quarter to give the Hornets a 20-0 lead.

Delgado led Fort Hays State with 10 tackles in a 17-16 win at Northwest Missouri. He made eight solo stops on the day, the biggest coming early in the fourth quarter by stopping the Bearcats on 4th-and-1 for no gain at the FHSU 41-yard line. Delgado helped the FHSU defense limit the Bearcats to just 178 yards of total offense on 57 plays (3.1 yards per play).

Brania-Hopp finished with 221 yards in kickoff returns for 337 all-purpose yards in a win against Pittsburg State. He had a kickoff return of 99 yards for a touchdown after a Gorilla score in the fourth quarter. Earlier in the game, Brania-Hopp had an 81-yard kickoff return which set up an Ichabod field goal entering the halftime break. His 337 all-purpose yards set an Ichabod single-game record for all-purpose yards in a game. Overall, Brania-Hopp averaged 55.25 yards per kickoff return.

— MIAA Release —