Bates football has garnered quite a few NESCAC Football Player of the Week awards over the years -- at least a good share of Defensive Player of the Week, Special Teams Player of the Week and (now defunct) Rookie of the Week honors. But somehow when Shawn Doherty was named this week's NESCAC Offensive Player of the Week, it was the first time in 11 years a Bobcats had claimed that particular honor.
Doherty (Mansfield, Mass.) carried the ball 24 times for a career-high 182 yards and two touchdowns, as Bates piled up 317 yards on the ground in a 20-16 win over Tufts. Doherty also caught a 12-yard pass and returned two kickoffs for 53 yards, giving him 247 all-purpose yards in the game. Doherty's 182 yards were the most by a Bobcat player in the past decade (a yard more than Jamie Walker's 181-yard effort against Hamilton in 2004).
Doherty leads the NESCAC in rushing with 273 yards over two games, 58 more than any other player in the league. Doherty also leads the NESCAC in all-purpose yards, at 211.5 per game, 69 more than second-place Mike Rando of Tufts. Nationwide, he ranks 18th and fifth, respectively, in those categories.
Doherty is also one of only two non-quarterbacks among the NESCAC's top 10 players in total offense, ranking ninth in that category at 136.5 yards per game.
Bates' last Offensive Player of the Week was Sean Atkins '03, who captured the honor on Nov. 3, 2002, following his 298-yard, seven-touchdown performance against Bowdoin.
