Allegheny College Football Names 2008 Captains

Seventh-year head coach Mark Matlak has selected a group of four seniors as captains to lead the 2008 Gators football team.

Fullback Matt Cellini (Trumbull, Conn./St. Joseph), defensive lineman Billy Jones (New Castle, Pa./Laurel), linebacker Craig Lawrence (Fairview/Fairview) and offensive lineman Andy Stas (Latrobe/Greater Latrobe) will guide an Allegheny squad that was picked to finish fourth in the North Coast Athletic Conference coaches’ poll and fifth in the media poll.

Cellini has played in 22 career games for the Gators, including 10 each in the last two seasons. A year ago, the fullback started five games and had a career-high 49 attempts while gaining 171 yards and three touchdowns.

Also representing the offense, Stas has been an integral part of the ground game’s success in recent years. He played in all 10 games last season while starting eight of those contests and helped to pave the way for an offense that gained an average of 117.3 rushing yards and 196.6 yards passing per game.

Defensively, Lawrence has seen action in 19 career games, racking up 80 total tackles, including 15.5 tackles for loss and 6.5 sacks. A second-team All-NCAC performer from a year ago, Lawrence had at least three tackles in every game last season and earned defensive Player of the Week honors from d3Football.com and the NCAC.

Jones has played in every game for the Gators in each of the last two seasons, compiling 50 career tackles. Last season, Jones posted 38 total tackles and was named to the All-NCAC Second Team.

Allegheny enters the 2008 campaign returning 34 letterwinners, including five starters each on offense and defense. The squad is young, with 45 upperclassmen dotting the roster, compared to 36 sophomores and 50 freshmen who will challenge for starting spots.
Just two juniors and three seniors return to the offensive unit. Quarterback T.J. Salopek will need to step up and guide a struggling offense that graduated standout wide receiver Jim Lieb, who finished his Gator career in 2007 ranked second all-time in receptions (150) and third all-time in receiving yards (1,727), while backs Rodney Still, Matt Deivert and Cellini must improve the ground game.

Defensively, Allegheny returns three juniors and two seniors to a unit which finished first in the NCAC in total defense. Despite three all-conference selections among the returnees in Jones, Doug Macik and Lawrence, the Gators will have to replace their top four tackle leaders from a year ago.

Allegheny opens the season with two straight road games at Juniata and Westminster, respectively, before its first home game on Sept. 27 against Oberlin on homecoming weekend.
A highlight of the 2008 campaign will be the Gators’ Oct. 11 matchup against Carnegie Mellon, which will be telecast live on Fox SportsNet Pittsburgh at 3:30 p.m.

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