College Football News – Guilford Pair Lands First Team All-America Honors

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Guilford College’s Satiir Stevenson (Roselle, N.J./Abraham Clark) added First Team Associated Press (AP) Little All-America and D3football.com All-America honors to his list of accomplishments Friday. Stevenson, who earned NCAA Division III All-America honors for the second straight season from the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) earlier this month, is the Quakers’ first AP Little All-American since 1975 and Guilford’s first two-time D3football.com All-American.

Guilford junior cornerback JerMario Gooch (Raleigh, N.C./Knightdale) also garnered First Team All-America recognition from D3football.com to give the Quakers two D3football.com All-Americans for the first time in school history.

The AP has selected Little All-America Football Teams since 1934. The three squads are comprised of students at NCAA Division II, Division III and NAIA institutions. Offensive lineman Steve Musulin ’76 was the last Guilford student so honored.

D3football.com published its 16th All-America team just prior to the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl, NCAA Division III’s national championship game, Friday. The three All-American teams and honorable mention selections were elected by website staff members and NCAA Division III sports information directors. Stevenson was a third-team pick in 2013.

Stevenson, a 5-11, 200-pound safety, made his second straight First Team D3football.com All-South team this fall and was also named the 2014 Old Dominion Athletic Conference’s (ODAC) Lou Wacker Defensive Player of the Year. He received First Team All-ODAC recognition for the third straight season, a first for a Quakers’ defender. A second-team all-league pick as a rookie, the senior captain is Guilford’s first defender named All-ODAC four times and joins Junior Lord as the only other Quaker tabbed to three first-team squads.

Stevenson ranked second on the team with a career-high 92 tackles, four interceptions and five pass breakups in 2014. He finished fourth in the league in tackles and fifth in interceptions per game. Stevenson had five contests with nine or more tackles, including a 22-stop, one-interception performance versus Washington and Lee University that clinched his third career ODAC Defensive Player of the Week honor, plus a spot on the D3football.com Team of the Week. Stevenson played regularly on special teams and averaged 5.8 yards on 11 punt returns. He averaged 15.3 yards per kickoff return on a club-best 13 returns.

Stevenson increased his tackles output every season and ranked no lower than fourth on the team each year. He led the Quakers with 81 stops in 2013 and was Guilford’s Most Valuable Player as a sophomore in 2012. Stevenson twice led the ODAC in interceptions and concludes his career with 14 thefts, the fourth-highest total in Guilford history. He also leaves ranked fourth among Guilford’s career punt return average leaders (8.1). Stevenson started a school-record 40 games amassed 303 career tackles (183 solo). He broke up 20 passes in addition to his 14 career interceptions.

Gooch, a 5-8, 165-pound cornerback, was a First Team D3football.com All-South and All-Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) pick after leading the league with a career-high six interceptions, seventh-best in school history. His 0.6 picks per game average stands 19th in Division III through games of Dec. 13. The 5-8, 165-pound junior cornerback also had 42 tackles (23 solo) and broke up a team-high seven passes, the ODAC’s fifth-best figure. Gooch averaged an ODAC-high 1.3 passes defended per game, which ranks 56th nationally. He had two thefts in Quakers’ victories over Southern Virginia University and Randolph-Macon College. His season-high eight tackles contributed to a win over Washington and Lee University. Gooch enters his senior season with 11 interceptions, the sixth-best total in school history.

Coach Chris Rusiewicz’s Quakers matched the school record for overall and league wins in a season with an 8-2 record (5-2 ODAC). Guilford, which set 11 school records this year, shared first place in the conference standings for the first time since 1997. Rusiewicz could return as many as 15 starters next fall.