AJ Pena’s Inspired Effort Earns Him CAA Defensive Player of the Week

For the second time this season, a Rhode Island Football player has claimed a spot on the CAA Football weekly honor roll as linebacker A.J. Pena was tabbed Defensive Player of the Week on Monday morning.

Quarterback Devin Farrell previously achieved the feat by earning the league’s weekly offensive award following the victory over Holy Cross (Aug. 31).

Pena played a key role on the defense that anchored URI’s 21-9 win over Campbell on Saturday night at Meade Stadium. He had eight tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, two sacks and a fumble recovery that set up the first touchdown of the conference opener.

In the first quarter, the junior recovered a Chad Mascoe fumble at the Campbell 31, setting up a short field for the Rhody offense, which punched it in for a score four plays later. Four of Pena’s eight tackles resulted in no gain or losses and both of his sacks came in the fourth quarter, preventing any comeback attempts by the Camels. He padded his individual stats with the performance, surpassing 100 career tackles (101) while overtaking John Klumbach (16; 1988-91) for eighth all-time on URI’s career sacks list (17.5).

Rhode Island limited its visitors to 8-for-18 on third downs and 0-for-3 on third downs.

The Rams’ season continues on Saturday, Sept. 21 with a non-conference game at LIU. Kickoff is scheduled for 12 p.m. in Brookville, N.Y.

CAA Football Weekly Awards
Co-Offensive Player of the Week: Josh Derry, So., WR, Monmouth (Towson, Md./Concordia Prep)
Co-Offensive Player of the Week: Seth Morgan, Sr., QB, New Hampshire (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mount Lebanon)
Defensive Player of the Week: A.J. Pena, Jr., LB, Rhode Island (Montclair, N.J./Somerville)
Special Teams Player of the Week: Trevin Ewing, Jr., WR, Maine (Elkton, Md./Elkton)
Rookie of the Week: Isaiah Ragland, Fr., RB, Villanova (Alexandria, Va./Centreville, Va.)