Sept. 28, 2009

EASTON, Pa. - Junior kicker Davis Rodriguez (St. Petersburg, Fla./St. Petersburg Catholic) and junior linebacker Michael Schmidlein (Chester, N.Y./Chester Academy) earned Patriot League weekly football honors following Lafayette's 20-17 overtime win vs. Penn. Rodriguez nailed the game-winning field goal in overtime and was named Special Teams Player of the Week while his classmate, Schmidlein, made a game- and career-high 16 tackles en route to Defensive Player of the Week laurels.

Rodriguez hit 2-of-3 field goals, including the game winner from 28 yards out in overtime. Rodriguez also connected on both of his extra-point attempts as he scored eight points on the evening. He had previously kicked the game winner against Penn in an 8-7 triumph in 2007. Rodriguez earns his first Special Teams Player of the Week award this season and third of his career. For his career, Rodriguez is 70-0f-74 on PAT's and 23-of-35 on FG attempts.

Schmidlein made 16 tackles to help Lafayette limit Ivy League favorite Penn to just 17 points in the 20-17 overtime victory, the Leopards' third straight over the Quakers. He also recorded a tackle for loss and pass breakup as the Leopards held Penn to just 2-of-13 on third-down conversions. Schmidlein leads the Patriot League and is seventh nationally with 11.7 tackles per game. He earns his first conference Defensive Player of the Week award.

Rodriguez and Schmidlein both were Patriot League Academic Honor Roll selections in 2008, earning varsity letters while maintaining a minimum of a 3.2 GPA in the fall semester. The duo also surpassed the 3.0 GPA threshold in the spring semester.

A Government and Law major, Rodriguez is currently enrolled in four classes: African Cultural Institutions, Early American Political Thought, Introduction to Psychology (with lab) and Religion, Myth & Fantasy. An Economics and Business major, Schmidlein is taking Economics of Health Care, Intro to Finance, Economics of Sport and Intro to Sociology this fall semester.

The Leopards are 2-1 and travel to New Haven, Conn. and the Yale Bowl to face the Bulldogs on Saturday. Kick-off is set for 12:07 p.m. in a game that can be seen live on RCN-4 and 8 and WBPH-60 and heard on WGPA-AM Sunny 1100.

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