Sprint Football gets postseason awards

Capping off a season of strong offense and suffocating defense, the Penn sprint football team now has one more thing to celebrate.

Last week, the Collegiate Sprint Football League announced that 15 members of the Quakers earned All-League honors for their play this season, including five first-team players.

Athletes are nominated for this honor by coaches around the league. Coaches are not allowed to nominate their own players.

First-team members are quarterback Jimmer Donapel, running back Mark Gannon, wide receiver Jeff Bagnoli and defensive linemen Jeff Pinto and Doug Pires.

This was the third consecutive All-CSFL first-team nod for junior Pinto and senior Gannon.

"It's nice to know that the coaches recognize my season," Gannon said. "There were some good backs on Army and Navy this year, so it was an honor to be named one of the best."

Leading the league with 574 yards rushing, Gannon became the second all-time leading rusher in Penn sprint history during a blowout of Princeton, 55-18. He also scored six touchdowns on the season.

Pinto finished the season second on the team in tackles with 31 and sacks with two.

Bagnoli picked up his second-consecutive first-team pick after finishing the season with a career-high 22 catches and 388 receiving yards. Bagnoli was a human highlight reel against Cornell and Princeton, burning their defensive backs for over 120 receiving yards each. He leaves Franklin Field with a career receiving total of 864 yards.

Donapel is also making his second-straight appearance on the All-CSFL first team after finishing the year second in passing yardage (665 yards) and quarterback efficiency (133.0). Before spraining his ankle in the loss to Navy, Donapel was also a serious rushing threat to opposing defenses.

Sophomore Pires led the CSFL with 5.5 sacks and also finished third with 41 tackles to earn first-team honors.

"It was nice to see Doug Pires get recognition," Gannon said. "Usually they favor upperclassmen."

Second team honorees were offensive lineman Robert Pavlacka, defensive lineman Stephen Willard, junior linebacker Chris Malachowski and wide receiver Patrick Monaghan.

"Steve definitely deserved to be first team," Gannon said. "No question about it."

The Quakers also had seven players earn honorable mention recognition. These players were freshmen Ben Drane (OL), David Derr (TE) and Jordan Cloyd (OL), along with sophomore kicker Evan Nolan, junior Matt London (DL) and senior Brandon Gebers (QB/WR/DB).

While underclassmen obviously made their impression on the league this year, the seniors will definitely be missed.

"This is definitely a loss," Monaghan said. "All the seniors had unbelievable games [in the Princeton blowout].

"Jeff was indispensible for me. Having him there gave me someone to look up to, something to strive for."

However,the Quakers' future remains bright.

"When you have a quarterback of Jimmer's caliber, you are always confident," Monaghan said. "Some of our guys might be unproven, but they definitely have the ability to step it up next year."

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