Zeimantz Earns First-Team All-SCIAC Honors, Cheadle, Cooney, Lyle Named to Second Team
CLAREMONT, Calif. - Senior center Jett Zeimantz earned a spot on the All-SCIAC first team for the second year in a row, while senior running back Garrett Cheadle, junior offensive lineman Jacob Lyle and sophomore cornerback Benjamin Cooney were each named to the second team, the league office announced today.
Zeimantz has been the anchor of an offensive line that has produced impressive totals in rushing yardage and time of possession over the last two seasons. The Stags ran for 190.3 yards per game in their SCIAC Championship season of a year ago, while dominating the ball for 35:36 per game in time of possession. This year, those numbers were even better at 199.7 yards per game on the ground and 36:26 in time of possession, which leads the nation heading into the NCAA Tournament. To emphasize Zeimantz's important role in those numbers, CMS had only 64 rushing yards and 30:28 in time of possession in the only game he missed this year (against Redlands).
The Stags also had a second member of this year's offensive line added to the All-SCIAC list as Lyle earned second-team honors for his first career conference award. Lyle has manned the left tackle position for the last three years and helped CMS hold opponents to only 21 quarterback sacks this season (two per game), in addition to its impressive rushing totals. Behind Zeimatz and Lyle, the Stags also scored over 50 points in two straight games for the first time in program history in wins over Occidental (56-9) and Whittier (52-16), totaling 376 rushing yards against Occidental and 393 against Whittier.
Cheadle has been the top producer out of the offensive backfield behind the CMS offensive line for the last two years, earning SCIAC Offensive Player of the Year honors a year ago when he rushed for 1305 yards, second-most in program history. This year, he was restricted by injury in midseason, leaving the La Verne game on Oct. 5 in the first half, missing the Cal Lutheran game on Oct. 12 and running only eight time against Redlands on Oct. 19. As a result, his numbers fell back this season to only 763 yards, but he passed his career-high in touchdowns with 11 to finish with 33, and ended his career with 2,987 rushing yards, third all-time in CMS history.
Cooney had a big year defensively to repeat on the All-SCIAC second team, tallying a team-high five interceptions on the season, as well as leading the team with 14 pass break-ups. He had two interceptions in an overtime game at La Verne, both of which came in the fourth quarter with the score tied, and had at least one interception in each of his first four games. He was named to the D3football.com Team of the Week on opening day against Puget Sound, when he had seven solo tackles, an interception and six pass break-ups.
CMS finished the season with a 5-5 record, capping it off with a 20-17 win over Pomona-Pitzer on Saturday to win back the Sixth Street Trophy. It was a vintage game for the Stag All-SCIAC selections, as Cheadle ran for 121 yards behind an offensive line that helped CMS hold the ball for 40:44 to only 19:16 for the Sagehens, while Cooney broke up two passes to lead a defense that allowed SCIAC Offensive Player of the Year Karter Odermann of Pomona-Pitzer to complete only 12-of-36 passes for 121 yards (just 3.4 yards an attempt).