Eastern Washington's Meyer and Cal Poly's Gocong and Shotwell Highlight 2005 Football Gazette Northwest All-Region Team

Eastern Washington's Meyer and Cal Poly's Gocong and Shotwell Highlight 2005 Football Gazette Northwest All-Region Team

WESTMONT, Illinois ~~ Peyton Award winner, Erik Meyer from Eastern Washington, Buck Buchanan Award winner, Chris Gocong from Cal Poly along with record-setting teammate, Kyle Shotwell headline a talented 2005 Don Hansen's Football Gazette NCAA 1-AA Northwest All-Region team.

Meyer earned Offensive Back of the Year while Gocong claimed the Defensive Lineman of the Year Award and Shotwell is the Linebacker of the Year. Senior Laurent Robinson from Illinois State University earned Offensive Receiver of the Year honors, while Jeff Bolton from Montana State claimed Offensive Lineman of the Year honors. Northern Colorado's Reed Doughty is the Defensive Back of the year and Special Teams Player of the Year honors go to Jaret Johnson from Idaho State.

Meyer, a senior, from La Mirada, California, completed 269 of 410 passes (.656) for 4,003 yards and 30 TDs with 5 interceptions... carried the ball 92 times for 221 yards (2.4 ypc) and two TDs... Named as the recipient of the 2005 Payton Award. Meyer is a Two-time Big Sky Conference Offensive MVP and first team All-Big Sky QB. Ranked second in I-AA in total offense (352.0) and 5th in efficiency (168.9). Set I-AA career passing efficiency record (at least 400 completions) with a 166.5 rating, and ranks in the top 16 in I-AA history in career passing yards (10,261), career touchdown passes (84) and career total offense (10,942).

Gocong, a senior, from Santa Barbara, California, is the 2005 Great West Football Conference Defensive Player of the Year. Chris Gocong is the winner of the 2005 Buck Buchanan Award presented by The Sports Network to the nation's defensive player of the year in Division I-AA. This season, Gocong finished first in the nation in sacks per game (1.81), second in tackles for lost yardage (2.35 per game) and 23rd in forced fumbles (.31). He recorded 98 total tackles (46 solo), including a school-record 23.5 sacks and 31.0 tackles for lost yardage, leading the Mustangs to a 9-4 record, a second straight Great West Football Conference championship and the quarterfinal round of the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs. He recovered a Montana State fumble in the end zone on Sept. 17 for his first career Mustang touchdown.

Shotwell, a junior, from Goleta, California, Shotwell (6-1, 235, Goleta, CA) raised the school record for total tackles in a season to 158, breaking the old mark of 135 established by Jordan Beck in 2004. Shotwell finished second in the Great West and fourth in the nation in total tackles per game and also finished fifth in the nation in solo tackles with 6.46 per contest.

See the full team at the Footbal Gazette website: http://www.donhansen.com/

This release was published on openPR.