Four from Football named All-NEC
SMITHFIELD, R.I. – The Bryant University football team placed four players on the All-Northeast Conference teams that were announced on Wednesday afternoon.
Bryant's honorees included one first-team selection and three second-team selections. Senior Tomas Wright (St. Augustine, Fla.) earned first-team honors, while senior Jesse Nemerowicz (Hudson, Mass.), senior Gavin Rowley (Hampstead, Md.) and junior Luke Samperi (Beverly, Mass.) were all second-team selections.
Wright earns All-NEC First Team honors for the second-straight year after posting 71 tackles, 9.0 sacks and 16.5 TFLs. He finished the year ranked third in the NEC in both sacks and TFLs and 18th in the NEC with his career-high 71 stops. The 71 tackles are the most by a defensive lineman in the league. Wright enjoyed his best game of the year against LIU, posting seven tackles, two sacks, 4.5 TFLs and two forced fumbles. He graduates as Bryant's all-time leader in sacks with 30.5 and ranks third with 43.5 TFLs in 45 games.
Nemerowicz earns All-NEC honors for the first time in his career after posting 95 tackles, 2.0 sacks, 6.0 TFLs and an interception this fall. One of Bryant's all-time great defenders, Nemerowicz posted 10+ tackles on five occasions, including a season-high 13 in Bryant's win over Duquesne. He also added his first-career touchdown this fall, returning an interception 33 yards for a score against Sacred Heart. Nemerowicz graduates as Bryant's all-time leader in tackles with 320, the only player in school history to have more than 300.
An All-NEC Second Team placekicker in 2017, Rowley is now an All-NEC Punter. Rowley punted a league-high 74 times for 3,110 yards this fall, setting the Bryant single-season record for punting yardage. He produced 13 punts of 50+ yards and led the NEC with a 42.0 average. His highest output came against Saint Francis U when he punted 10 times for a program-record 464 yards. That included a career-long 66-yard punt. Rowley became only the second punter in school history with over 7,000 career yards and graduates second all-time.
Samperi becomes just the second kicker (Rowley) to earn All-NEC honors in Bryant history. He finished the year 11-of-14 in field goal attempts and 20-of-22 on PATs. Samperi led the NEC in field goal percentage (78.6), was third in total field goals with his program record-tying 11 and finished with 53 points. He opened his season by kicking a 49-yard field goal in the season opener and made eight-straight at one point. That stretch included a career-high 50-yard field goal against Duquesne, just the third field goal of 50+ yards in school history. Samperi was a perfect 6-for-6 inside of 40 yards this season.