Ten Polar Bears named All-OAC in Football - Shook named Offensive Lineman of the Year
By Tim Glon
ADA — Ten Ohio Northern student/athletes were named All-Ohio Athletic Conference in football for 2018 in voting conducted by the league's 10 head coaches.
Leading the list of Polar Bears grabbing All-OAC honors was senior left tackle Sam Shook (New Philadelphia), who was named the Ken Wable Offensive Lineman of the Year.
Other ONU players joining Shook as First Team honorees were senior receiver Chad Rex (Brandenton, Fla./Lakewood Ranch), senior kicker Chase Watson (Lima/Elida) and junior linebacker Mark Niles (Miramar, Fla.)
Senior offensive guard Kyle Gonterman (Wapakoneta), junior quarterback Anthony McFadden (Chillicothe/Paint Valley), junior linebacker David Haseleu (Pittsburgh, Pa./Montour) and freshman running back Brock Martin (Attica/Seneca East) were named Second Team All-Conference.
Senior defensive tackle Justin Croswell (Macomb, Mich./Lutheran North) and senior receiver Caleb Saalfeld (Modesto, Calif./Fred Beyer) were named Honorable Mention All-OAC.
Shook had an outstanding season after missing most of the past two years due to injury, grading out at a team-best 89 percent as the anchor of the offensive line.
He is also one of 30 players from all NCAA divisions named a Mayo Clinic Comeback Player of the Year nominee.
Shook ends his career as a three-year starter, having played in 26 career games with 25 starts.
Rex is a three-year starter and is making his second appearance as a First Team All-OAC honoree, also earning the award as a junior in 2017.
This season, Rex was second in the OAC with 78 receptions and 1,043 yards and was third with 11 receiving touchdowns.
He played in 36 games with 25 starts and ends his career ranked second all-time in ONU history with 167 receptions and is fifth all-time with 2,271 receiving yards.
Rex also posted 2,800 all-purpose yards and scored 182 career points with 30 touchdowns and one 2-point conversion.
Watson is a two-year starter at placekicker and is making his first appearance on the All-Conference team.
He is the most accurate kicker in ONU history, ending his career a perfect 71-for-71 on PATs and going 10-for-12 on field goals, an accuracy rating of 83.3 percent.
In 18 career games, Watson scored 101 points.
This season, he was 41-for-41 on PATs, 7-for-8 on field goals for 62 points.
Watson was named the OAC Special Teams Player of the Week twice this season.
Niles is now a two-time All-OAC honoree after earning Second Team accolades a year ago.
He led the OAC this season with an average of 10.5 tackles per game in his first season as starting outside linebacker after starting at outside linebacker in 2017.
Niles was named the OAC Defensive Player of the Week on Sept. 24 this season.
He will enter this senior season with 173 career tackles, 4.5 sacks, 9.5 tackles for loss and a pick-6.
Gonterman is a four-year starter on the offensive line and is making his first appearance on the All-OAC squad.
He started 33 games in his career and saw action in 36 games total, with 12 starts at left guard, 16 games at right tackle and five games at right guard.
McFadden is a first-time All-Conference honoree in his first full season as starting quarterback of the Polar Bears.
He was fourth in the OAC with an average of 246.4 passing yards per game and a 153.2 passer rating this season.
In nine games, he completed 156-of-260 passes for 2,218 yards and 20 touchdowns while throwing only five interceptions.
He also ran for 390 yards and finished the season with 2,608 yards of total offense.
McFadden will enter his senior season with 2,624 yards passing and 26 touchdowns in his 15-game career.
Haseleu started all 10 games at outside linebacker this season and is making his first appearance as an All-Conference honoree.
This season, he is seventh in the OAC with 86 tackles and has 108 in his career.
Haseleu was named the OAC Defensive Player of the Week on Sept. 17 this season.
He has seen significant action at three different positions in his three years as a Polar Bear. He played nine games with one start at RB, played 10 games at DB and started all 10 games this season at LB.
He has 199 yards rushing and a TD as a RB, returned a blocked punt 30 yards for a TD as a defensive back and has a Pick-6 as a LB.
Martin started all 10 games at running back as a freshman this season.
He is fourth in the league in rushing with 756 yards this season and is third in the league with 13 rushing touchdowns in his first season as a Polar Bear.
Martin is one of only six freshman named to the All-OAC squad league-wide this year.
Croswell started nine games at defensive tackle for ONU this season and is making his second appearance as an All-OAC honoree after being named Second Team All-OAC as a junior in 2017.
He has played in 34 career games with 20 starts on the defensive line.
This season, he has 26 tackles and one sack.
Croswell ended his career with 77 tackles, six sacks, 11.5 tackles for loss and two blocked kicks.
Saalfeld is a two-year starter at receiver and is a first-time All-Conference honoree.
He finished the 2018 season with 31 receptions for 497 yards and five touchdowns.
In 29 career games, Saalfeld caught 61 passes for 941 yards and 11 touchdowns.
He finished his career with 1,621 all-purpose yards, adding 392 kickoff return yards, 274 punt return yards and 14 rushing yards to his total.
The Polar Bears finished the 2018 season 5-5 overall under 15th-year head coach Dean Paul.
ONU tied for fifth in the OAC with a 4-5 league mark, posting their 22nd upper division finish in the past 23 seasons.