Sports News Southwest

Yuma, Arizona - Arizona Western College announced today that five members of the AWC Football team have been named to the All-ACCAC and All-WSFL postseason teams. Sophomore defensive end Joel Walton and sophomore cornerback Marcus Benjamin earned 1^st Team honors on both the All-WSFL and All-ACCAC squads. 

While Walton’s name may not have been one that opponents paid the most attention to at the start of the 2008 season, it took all of one or two games into the season before opposing offensive coordinators were scrambling to get him covered. Most didn’t accomplish that feat, since the 3^rd-year Matador defensive lineman terrorized just about every offensive line he contended against in 2008. Born in Long Island, New York but calls his hometown Phoenix, Arizona, Walton spent the 2006 season as a Matador redshirt, started to come on during the second half of last season, and this season, took over as the Matadors’ most dominant player on either side of the ball. Walton had three different games this season which had two sacks or more, and in each of those games, he forced a fumble that the Matadors recovered. That includes his 4-sack, 6-solo tackle, 1-forced fumble performance October 11^th at Mesa, which earned him the Western States Football League Defensive Player of the Week Award for the second time in three weeks. Overall, Walton easily won the WSFL Sacks title with a dozen, and also led the team in solo tackles (35), total tackles (69), tackles for loss (20) and forced fumbles (3). Walton finished 3^rd in the WSFL voting for WSFL Defensive Player of the Year as well.

While Walton was largely unheralded coming into the season, Benjamin came into the ’08 season as the team’s highest-profile defender after being named NJCAA Preseason All-American. Benjamin certainly didn’t disappoint, punishing quarterbacks who dared throw in his direction. The New Iberia, Louisiana native led the WSFL in interceptions with 8, and distributed them equally, picking off passes in 6 consecutive games, including 2-interception games against New Mexico Military Institute and Phoenix College. Benjamin was also one of the team leaders in solo tackles with 23.

While Walton and Benjamin spent their entire community college careers at AWC, both Cotton and Mitchell followed AWC Head Football Coach Tom Minnick to Yuma after spending their freshman seasons elsewhere-and both made immediate impacts. Cotton was arguably the WSFL’s most explosive running back in 2008, rushing for 897 yards and 9 touchdowns, including a season-high 182 yards and a TD in the 95-degree heat November 1^st against New Mexico Military Institute. However, the native of Belleville, Illinois, also was one of the league’s most versatile backs, since he caught 10 passes coming out of the backfield for 77 yards. His 99.7 rushing yards per game average was 2^nd-best in the WSFL.

If Cotton looks to one person in particular to thank for his help in achieving those marks, it would be Mitchell. Jessie started all 10 games for the Matadors this past season at right guard, and was one of the main reasons why the Mats had 1568 rushing yards overall, and why either Cotton or fellow tailback George Conley had a rushing performance of 90 yards or more 7 times. Finally, Walton and Benjamin spent most of the season garnering the headlines for the Mats’ defense, but Smith may have been the glue that kept the squad together. The freshman from Chicago, Illinois very quietly was 2^nd on the team in total tackles (53) (including 4 ½ of those for loss), solo tackles (24) and assisted tackles (29). He also was 3^rd on the team in sacks with 2.

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