Joe Hughes, Sam Bartels Receive NACC Weekly Football Honors

EUREKA – For the first time in their careers, Eureka's Joe Hughes (Normal, Ill./University) and Sam Bartels (Jerseyville, Ill./Jersey Community) are the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference's Student-Athletes of the Week.

Hughes, a 6-foot, 215-pound junior running back, is the NACC Offensive Player of the Week, and Bartels, a 6-foot, 190-pound freshman kicker and punter, is the NACC Special Teams Player of the Week.

In Eureka's 48-29 win over Rockford last week, Hughes carried the load for the Red Devils, running for 234 yards and four touchdowns on 36 carries. Both the yard and touchdown totals were career highs for the running back, who punched in for scores on runs of 1, 4, 5 and 6 yards, respectively. Hughes averaged 6.5 yards per carry on the day and ran for a long of 28 yards.

His performance was the Red Devils' first 200-yard rushing game since Le'Anthony Reasnover on Nov. 3, 2018 against Lakeland.

Bartels, meanwhile, had a prolific day in the special teams unit. As the kicker, he made 6 of 7 extra point attempts and tallied two touchbacks on kickoffs while racking up 309 yards on eight kickoffs. He also averaged 42.7 yards per punt on three punts, placing two inside the 20 and recording a touchback and a fair catch.

The pair of awards are EC's first NACC weekly honors of the spring 2021 season.

Hughes is the Red Devils' first NACC Offensive Player of the Week since James Douglas III on Nov. 5, 2019, while Bartels is the first NACC Special Teams Player of the Week since Tanner Kuhne on Oct. 15, 2021.

Eureka (2-2) will wrap up its season on Saturday with a 2 p.m. road game against Concordia Wisconsin (2-2). A victory would give the Red Devils' five straight winning season for the first time in the program's 117-year history.