Moon Township, Pa. – Junior cornerback Antwan Eddie (Homestead, Fla. / South Dade) and redshirt freshman quarterback Marcus Prather (Steubenville, Ohio / Steubenville (Akron)) of the Robert Morris University football team were both honored by the Northeast Conference (NEC) as announced Monday.
 
Eddie was selected as Special Teams Player of the Week while Prather earned Rookie of the Week accolades after both played prominent roles in leading RMU to a 17-13 come-from-behind victory at defending NEC champion Wagner this past Saturday.
 
It marks the first time in RMU history that Colonials have won both the NEC's special teams honor and the rookie award in the same week. It is also the sixth time in the last seven years that RMU has won multiple accolades in the same week at least once during the season.
 
Eddie returned six punts for 99 yards to tally the third-highest single-game total in RMU history. In doing so, Eddie broke Robert Morris' single-season school record for total punt return yardage (347) with four games still left in the regular season. Eddie now has three of the top four single-game marks in punt return yardage in RMU history, all within his last five games played. Half of his returns went for at least 25 yards as he often zigged and zagged his way through the Seahawk coverage unit. His first long return, a 33-yard jaunt, set up RMU with good field position to launch a scoring drive. His final return of the day may have been his biggest as his 25-yard runback moved the ball to the Seahawk 35-yard line in the middle of the fourth quarter, setting up a game-tying touchdown drive for the Colonials.
 
Eddie is averaging 19.3 yards per return, a mark that ranks him second nationally at the FCS level.
 
Eddie earns his third special teams honor of 2013 with this announcement, tying Garrett Clawson's RMU record for most NEC special teams awards in a career. Eddie is not only the lone NEC student-athlete to be honored in the Special Teams category more than once this year, but he is the first in the league to win at least three in a season since Clawson pulled the feat in 2009.
 
Prather, making his first collegiate start last Saturday, led Robert Morris to a comeback win on the road with some fourth quarter heroics. Seeing his first significant action at the college level, Prather would hit Duane Mitchell (Monroe Falls, Ohio / Stow) with a 10-yard strike to tie the game midway through the final frame. After Wagner retook the lead with a field goal, Prather saved his best for last. He was 5-for-8 for 63 yards on the game-winning drive as he effectively led the two-minute drill. His final throw was his most important as RMU elected to go for the lead on fourth down in the red zone, and Prather found Tyler Digby (New Westminster, British Columbia / New Westminster) for a game-winning 11-yard TD pass. He finished the day 17-for-33 with two touchdowns. He also added an important 18-yard rush to move the ball into the red zone on a Colonial scoring drive in the second quarter.
 
Prather's rookie honor is the first by a Colonial this season and the first by a RMU player on the offensive side of the ball since 2009. Prather becomes the 18th distinct Colonial to claim a NEC Rookie of the Week award and the fifth quarterback to do so.
 
This marks the first time since 2010 that two distinct Colonials claimed NEC honors in the same week as Alex DiMichele and Myles Russ, both current assistant coaches, pulled the trick.
 
Robert Morris will return home this Saturday, Nov. 2, as it takes on first-place Bryant on ESPN3.