WICHITA FALLS, Texas – The Midwestern State Mustangs defended their Lone Star Conference Championship last Saturday with a 52-48 win at West Texas A&M, then swept the weekly awards from the Lone Star Conference on Monday.
 
Senior quarterback Brandon Kelsey, senior linebacker Matt Ellerbrock and true freshman safety Marqui Christian were selected as the Lone Star Conference Offensive, Defensive and Special Teams Players of the Week after their title-winning performance.
 
Kelsey led the Mustangs to a share of their second consecutive LSC Championship the win over No. 12 West Texas A&M, the first time since 2004 that MSU has won in Canyon.  The signal caller for the Mustangs' Pony Express, the 6-2, 212 pound Arlington High grad tallied 348 yards of total offense with his fourth career 200-100 game, going 14-of-22 passing for a career-high 248 yards and rushing 14 times for 100 yards.  He rushed for three touchdowns and passed for a fourth in leading the Mustangs to 565 yards of total offense, the second-highest of the season for MSU and the team's fifth 500-yard offensive performance of the year.  His 348 yards was the second-best total offense game of his career as the Mustangs also claimed their third LSC title in the last four seasons.
 
Ellerbrock helped lead the Mustangs defense in the triumph in Canyon to repeat as Lone Star Conference Champions.  The 6-2, 230 pounder from North Garland was second on the MSU tackle chart with eight stops, but led the team with 2.5 tackles for losses of nine yards, including a sack of quarterback Dustin Vaughan for eight yards lost, recorded a quarterback hurry, recovered a fumble and led the team with three pass breakups.  Ellerbrock's sack of Vaughan was on the Buffs final drive of the game that helped MSU preserve the win for the Mustangs' third LSC Championship during Ellerbrock's four seasons.
 
Christian, a safety and an outside rusher on the 10th ranked Mustangs punt return team, scooped a muffed punt snap and returned it 18 yards for the game winning touchdown with 55 seconds to play.  After both WT punter Kevin Van Voris and teammate Thomas Carper bobbled the ball after the bad snap, the 6-1, 190 true freshman from Spring scooped up the ball and led a parade of Mustangs into the end zone for MSU's second touchdown in the final 2:09 to overcome a 10-point deficit for the win.
 
It is the first time this season that MSU has swept the league's player of the week awards.  Kelsey earned his second player of the week honor this season, while it is the first this season for Ellerbrock and Christian.

Notable

• The Mustangs have completed their Lone Star Conference season at 7-1, clinching a share of their third LSC Championship in the last four seasons.  MSU closes out the regular season at home against West Georgia in the LSC-Gulf South Conference 1st and 10 Challenge.
• The Mustangs 52-48 win over then 12th ranked West Texas A&M marked the 100th career win for MSU Coach Bill Maskill.  Maskill has a career mark of 100-41 (.709) in 13 seasons overall, with a record of 87-33 (.725) at Midwestern in 11 seasons.
• Brandon Kelsey recorded a season-high of 348 yards of total offense in the win at WT, the second-highest of his career and 15th best in MSU history. Kelsey threw for a career-high 248 yards on 14-of 22 passes with one touchdown and no interceptions and ran for 100 yards and three touchdowns on 14 carries.
• Kelsey recorded his fourth career 200/100 game and the ninth 200/100 game in MSU history.
• Junior Keidrick Jackson became the second leading rusher in Midwestern history with his 133 yards on 20 carries against WTAMU.  Now with 2,632 yards, Jackson passed former Indianapolis Colt Dominic Rhodes (1999-2000) who rushed for 2,541 yards.
• Jackson now has 1,159 rushing yards on the year, the fourth-best season in MSU history and the sixth 1,100-yard season in MSU history.  It's the first since Daniel Polk rushed for 1,199 in 13 games in 2006.
• Jackson continues to lead NCAA Division II in scoring with 12.00 points a game (108 in nine games).  He's tied with Klay Fiechter of Indianapolis (120 points in 10 games) and J.B. Mathews of Colorado State-Pueblo (96 points in eight games).
• Jackson scored two touchdowns on the ground at WT to total 18 for the season and needs one touchdown to tie and two to break the MSU single season touchdowns record … Jackson tied the career TD mark of 44, shared by Daniel Polk (2003-07) and is third in career scoring for MSU with 264 total points.
• Kelsey now is second in scoring in the LSC behind Jackson, averaging 9.3 points a game thanks to his 14 rushing touchdowns.  He also ranks 17th nationally.
• The Mustangs recorded their first interception in three games with Taiyon Jackson's pickoff of Dustin Vaughan in the final seconds to seal the WT victory.  Jackson had been the only secondary starter without an interception this season.
• With the combination of Jackson's 133 yards and Kelsey's 100 yards rushing, MSU recorded its fifth double-100 yard game of 2012.
• Midwestern State is 46-of-49 (93.9%) in the Red Zone through nine games with 38 touchdowns and eight field goals, and while MSU opponents are 28-of-33 (84.8 %) with 20 touchdowns and eight field goals.
• With its ranking this week, Midwestern has appeared in the last 20 AFCA Division II Top 25 polls (nine in the Top 10), has been ranked in 42 of the last 47 periods and has received a vote on at least one ballot in 81 of the last 82 reporting periods dating back to the 2006 season.