Five YSU players league all-stars

Senior offensive lineman Brad Samsa was named to the all-conference first team.

ST. LOUIS — Youngstown State had five players named to the Missouri Valley Football Conference all-star team.

Senior offensive lineman Brad Samsa was named to the first team.

Junior defensive lineman Crispin Fernandez was named to the second team, while junior punter Ben Nowicki, junior quarterback Brandon Summers and sophomore safety Brandian Ross were named honorable mention.

Samsa was a repeat first-team selection and earned all-conference honors three times.

He was named to the second team in 2006.

This season Samsa started at center for the first nine games before moving to guard for the final three.

Samsa played his best in the final stretch of the season.

He graded at 83 percent or better in four of the final five games.

Fernandez was the only defensive player to start all 12 games this season.

He started at tackle and end, finishing with 42 total tackles.

He was the team leader with four sacks.

Summers set school season records for passing percentage and passing efficiency and tied the mark for touchdown passes in a regular season.

He completed 122-of-195 passes for 1,540 yards and 18 touchdowns.

He closed the season by throwing 11 touchdown passes and two interceptions in the final four games. In the five league games he started, YSU was 3-2.

He also ran for 190 yards and scored three touchdowns.

Ross led the team with 98 total tackles, including 49 solos tops.

He started 11 of 12 games on defense and had double figures in tackles on three occasions.

He had a career-high 13 stops at Western Illinois in the season finale.

Nowicki, who was an honorable mention selection last year, increased his yards per kick average by 4 yards from 2007, to 41.1. per kick.

He placed 13 kicks inside the 20-yard line and had eight punts of 50 yards or more, including a career-long of 66 at Southern Utah.

The Penguins also had five players named to the MVFC’s All-Academic squad, the league announced on Tuesday.

Offensive lineman Brian Mellott was a first-team selection while defensive back Tom Krupko, Nowicki and kickoff specialist Stephen Blose were second-team picks, and Samsa was an honorable-mention choice.

Mellott, a junior who has a 3.96 grade-point average in accounting, is a repeat first-team selection. Samsa, a senior who has a 3.25 GPA in Industrial and Systems Engineering finished his career as a three-time honorable-mention all-academic selection.

Blose, Nowicki and Krupko all earned conference academic honors for the first time. Blose, a sophomore, has a 4.00 GPA in Middle Childhood Education. Nowicki has a 3.57 GPA in Chemistry and Krupko, a fifth-year senior, has a 3.92 grade-point average in Biology/Pre-Med.

Earlier this year, Blose was named to the first team Academic All-District while Mellott was second team.