N.C. A&T Alumni Times - September 26

North Carolina A&T junior running back Jah-Maine Martin (5-foot-10, 203, Conway, S.C.) rushed for 299 yards and two touchdowns in N.C. A&T’s 27-21 win over Charleston Southern on Saturday, Sept. 14, and a lot of people noticed.

Martin earned offensive player of the week honors from four different organizations on Monday, including from FCS STATS, who named him their national offensive player of the week. BoxToRow also named Martin their national player of the week along with College Sports Madness.

The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) handed weekly honors to four different Aggies on Monday naming Martin offensive player of the week, senior defensive tackle Jermaine Williams (6-1, 270, Lumberton, N.C.) defensive player of the week, senior left tackle Marcus Pettiford (6-4, 286, Durham, N.C.) offensive lineman of the week and junior placekicker Noel Ruiz (5-11, 187, Wilson, N.C.) was named special teams player of the week.

Also, Ruiz was named honorable mention national player of the week by STATS FCS.

Martin’s day included touchdown runs of 84 and 76 yards, along with nine runs of 13 yards or more. His single-game rushing performance was the third-best in school history behind Maurice Hicks’ 437 yards in 2001 and 353 yards in 2000. It was the 20th time in N.C. A&T’s rich football history that a running back has rushed for more than 200 yards in a game.

He is the ninth running back in program history to run for more than 200. Martin also made two receptions for 19 yards to give him 318 all-purpose yards.

Ruiz had another excellent game for the Aggies. After missing his first two field goals of the season, Ruiz has made seven straight field goals including the 52-yard game-winner against Elon to open the season on Aug. 31.

Last week, he went 4-for-4 against the CSU Buccaneers and connected on his only extra-point attempt. He also kicked the ball off six times, recorded two touchbacks and averaged 63.0 yards per kickoff. Four of his seven made field have been from 40 yards or more.

Williams earned his first-ever weekly honor as he helped the Aggies shut down the Bucs offense in the second half. Williams finished with a career-high six tackles to go along with a career-high 3.5 tackles for loss. The Bucs lost 13 yards on those tackles.

Behind the force of Williams and the rest of the Aggies defense, CSU was held to just 101 yards of offense and seven points in the second half.

While the Aggies defense was stifling, the offense came live in the second half thanks in part to play of Pettiford in the trenches. Pettiford graded out at 90 percent in 72 snaps played Saturday night. He was credited with three domination blocks and an outstanding downfield block on the 84-yard Martin run that cleared the way for the touchdown.

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From Press Box To Press Row is a nationally-syndicated radio show hosted by Donald Ware that is dedicated to HBCU sports.

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