THE COLLEGE FOOTBALL NETWORK TOP-10 DIII D3 LIST

BEVERLY, Mass. – Endicott rising senior Sam Opont (Bridgeport, Conn.) has earned a spot on The College Football Network's NCAA Division III Top-10 Defensive Tackles list headed into the 2020 season.

Opont was selected sixth overall and is the only New England region representative on the list, which features the reigning D3football.com National Defensive Player of the Year and several All-American and All-Region honorees.

Opont enters the 2020 season coming off a banner year on the gridiron wherein he was named the Commonwealth Coast Football (CCC Football) Co-Defensive Lineman of the Year and a Cliff Harris Award nominee. The Cliff Harris Award honors the nation's top small college defensive player among 500 NCAA Division II, Division III, and NAIA colleges and universities.

In addition to those honors, Opont received D3football.com All-Region Third Team and CCC Football All-Conference First Team accolades last season.

His 2019 campaign, statistically, included 59 tackles (24 solo, 35 assisted), 7.5 of them which went for a loss, two sacks, one quarterback hurry, and a forced fumble. Opont finished the year ranked third on the team in total tackles (19th in the conference) and third on the squad in assisted tackles (seventh in the league).

Meanwhile, as a team behind Opont's play, the Gulls concluded the year ranked No. 1 in the league in points allowed per game (18.4) and points allowed (202), second in rushing yards allowed per game (132.1) and sacks (17), and third in yards allowed per game (360.0), passing yards allowed per game (227.9), and tackles per game (71.5). 

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(Photo Credit - Nick Grace '20)