Abuhoff Named Ivy Special Teams Player of the Week Again

HANOVER, N.H. — Dartmouth junior cornerback/return specialist Shawn Abuhoff (Hialeah, Fla.) was chosen as the Ivy League Special Teams Player of the Week, the league office announced today. This is the second award Abuhoff has earned in the last three weeks, and a Big Green player has been given the honor three of the nine weeks this season thus far.

Abuhoff was a disruptive force on the return teams against Brown, but most notably returned a punt 76 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter, giving Dartmouth a 28-17 lead at the time. He also had punt returns of 23 and five yards on the afternoon, setting a personal single-game best of 104 yards, just 10 yards shy of the school record. The product of Dade Christian has now brought back three punts for touchdowns this season, equaling the Dartmouth record set in 1970. Two of those scoring returns are among the 10 longest in the FCS this year, and no other FCS player has more than two for touchdowns.

Brown was determined to take Abuhoff out of the equation on kickoffs, however, squib kicking several times to avoid the junior who is seventh among active FCS players in kick return average. Abuhoff's only opportunity came on a squib kick inside the final two minutes of the game, which he could only return one yard after corralling the bounding ball.

In addition to this honor from the Ivy League, the College Football Performance Awards listed Abuhoff as one of its three National Punt Returners of the Week at the FCS level.

This is the fifth time Abuhoff has won a weekly award during his career, as he was named the league's rookie of the week three times during the 2008 campaign. He joins placekicker Foley Schmidt (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) in earning the special teams award this year, while tailback Nick Schwieger (Norton, Mass.) has earned the Offensive Player of the Week award twice and tailback Dominick Pierre (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) the Rookie of the Week once.

This weekend, Dartmouth (5-4, 2-4 Ivy) will attempt to secure its first winning season in 13 years when it plays at Princeton (1-8, 0-6 Ivy) at 1 p.m. The Tigers have won the past six meetings between the two schools on the gridiron.

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