University of Richmond Athletics
Senior Casey Cooley Named CAA Football Special Teams Player Of The Week
09/20/2010 | Football
Sept. 20, 2010
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND - Richmond senior DL Casey Cooley has been named the CAA Football Special Teams Player of the Week after playing a key role in Saturday's 27-21 win over No. 7 Elon with his blocked field goal in overtime.
The McKinney, Texas native recorded his first career field goal block in memorable fashion, swatting away a 37-yard try by Elon's Adam Schreiner that would have given the visiting Phoenix the lead on their first possession in overtime.
Two plays after Cooley's block, senior RB Tyler Kirchoff busted a handful of tackles at the line of scrimmage and ran 16 yards to the end zone for the winning touchdown, giving No. 9 Richmond is 18th win over a Top-25 team in the last four years (18-5).
Elon, though, carried all the momentum into the overtime period as they answered Richmond's go-ahead touchdown that came with 1:41 left with a 16-play, 79-yard drive that ended with a 25-yard TD pass from Scott Riddle to Aaron Mellette as time expired.
The emotional win ushered in a new era of Richmond Football as the Spiders opened Robins Stadium with a sell-out crowd of 8,700 and gave first-year head coach Latrell Scott his first career victory.
Cooley, who also earned his second career start on the defensive line, he made two tackles, 0.5 TFL, broke up a pass and posted a QB hurry as the Spiders limited the high-power Elon offense to just 21 points (Elon was averaging 41.0 points coming in).
Cooley's honor marks the first CAA Football weekly award for the Spiders in 2010, after leading the league with seven weekly honors in 2009.
Richmond is back at Robins Stadium for another Top-25 tilt Saturday at 3:30 p.m. versus No. 11 Delaware. The game is the CAA Football opener for both teams and will be broadcast live on Comcast Network and Comcast SportsNet New England.
