Elon Phoenix Football Comes Home to Rhodes Stadium to Tackle Aggies

ELON, N.C. – After two weeks on the road, the Elon Phoenix football team will open the home portion of its 2015 schedule on Saturday, Sept. 19, by hosting the Aggies of North Carolina A&T at 6 p.m. inside of Rhodes Stadium. It is Hall of Fame Weekend at Elon and the five-member class of 2015 will be recognized at halftime.

This weekend’s Phoenix Walk will occur at approximately 3:30 p.m. as the Elon squad will walk down Bank of America Drive, through the tailgate area and into the stadium. Phoenix fans are encouraged to line the street and cheer on the maroon and gold.

Fans unable to attend the game can also listen to the game on WSML 104.5 FM and 1200 AM or at elonphoenix.com as David Hibbard and Taylor Durham have the call. The radio broadcast will start at 5 p.m. Fans can also listen to all Elon football games via the TuneIn Radio app. This app is free to download to your smartphone.

A free video stream is available through Phoenix All-Access.

ELON VS. NORTH CAROLINA A&T:
Elon and North Carolina A&T will meet for the 11th time ever on Saturday night. The Phoenix trails the all-time series 4-6 following a narrow defeat at home last season. The two first met in 1999 with the maroon and gold claiming a 40-7 victory.

OH CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN
The Phoenix football squad elected two captains for the 2015 season. Serving as captain for the second year in a row is senior defensive back Miles Williams. He will be joined by first-year captain, junior linebacker John Silas.

Each week the Phoenix will also name a game-week captain and are listed below:

• at Wake Forest – B.J. Bennett
• at Gardner-Webb – Rob Sullivan
• vs. North Carolina A&T – Corey Mitchell

NOTES FROM LAST GAME
• Elon improved to 3-0 all-time in multiple overtime games; The other two were a 36-33 win over Georgia Southern in 2007 and a 34-31 win at Samford in 1999 – both of which were two-overtime contests
• Elon is now 21-9 all-time against Gardner-Webb and has won four of the last five meetings
• Rob Sullivan had two of Elon’s five sacks, giving him four for the year
• Both Corey Mitchell and John Silas set new personal-bests for tackles with 18 and 17, respectively
• David Petroni booted four punts 50 or more yards, including a career-long 63-yarder; He now has seven punts of 50+ yards this season, including three of 60+

NATIONAL RECOGNITION
Following a career-best 18-tackle performance against Gardner-Webb, Elon junior linebacker Corey Mitchell (Jacksonville, N.C.) was named the STATS National Defensive Player of the Week in addition to the CAA Football Defensive Player of the Week. Of his 18 tackles, eight were solo stops. He added had one tackle for a loss of three yards and forced a fumble which set up Elon’s first touchdown. Mitchell also broke up one pass.

Mitchell is the first Elon player to earn a national player of the week award since Aaron Mellette in 2012 and the first defensive player to do so since Chad Nkang in 2006.

BOOMING PETRONI
Junior punter David Petroni (Buford, Ga.) drilled two of the longest punts of his career against Wake Forest as he hit punts of 61 and 60 yards. He bested that the next week at Gardner-Webb when he hit a 63-yarder along with a 61-yarder.

Through two games, Petroni is averaging 46.7 yards per punt. Eight of his 21 punts have pinned opponents inside their 20-yard line and he has seven punts of 50 or more yards.

SACKED

The Phoenix defense amassed five sacks in the victory over Gardner-Webb. That was the most sacks by an Elon team since recording five sacks at Western Carolina on Nov. 7, 2009.

Through two games, the Phoenix has tallied eight sacks, nearly halfway to its total of 20 from the 2014 campaign.

SCORELESS HALF
Elon and Gardner-Webb played a scoreless first half in week two. It marked the first such half for the Phoenix since an Oct. 15, 2005 date with Chattanooga at Rhodes Stadium. Elon would lose that game 10-7.