Alex Harvey may have led the Hubs varsity football team in rushing yards this season, but the senior’s performance on defense caught the attention of his Northern Illinois Big 12 Conference opponents, who voted him as both an All-Conference First Team player and the NIB-12 West Co-Defensive MVP.
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ROCHELLE — Alex Harvey may have led the Hubs varsity football team in rushing yards this season, but the senior’s performance on defense caught the attention of his Northern Illinois Big 12 Conference opponents, who voted him as both an All-Conference First Team player and the NIB-12 West Co-Defensive MVP.
“It’s a great feeling, especially since the NIB-12 is such a great conference,” Harvey said. “We had a bunch of teams fighting for the playoffs so it was an honor to be named with a bunch of other great players.”
Harvey, now a two-time All-Conference First Team honoree, was one of two Rochelle linebackers to make the All-Conference First Team this year, joining junior Eddie Villalobos, who earned First-Team honors for the first time. Senior A.J. Saleh received an All-Conference Honorable Mention for his efforts this fall.
“It was sweet because this year was my first time being at linebacker,” Villalobos said. “I was a free safety during my freshman and sophomore years… We communicated a lot during practices and we worked on getting our calls right throughout the week. Each week we had a different game plan.”
Villalobos finished the 2017 season as Rochelle’s leading tackler with 74 total tackles while adding two interceptions, one fumble recovery and one defensive touchdown. Both Villalobos and Harvey scored a touchdown on special teams as well, with Villalobos returning a kickoff against LaSalle-Peru on Oct. 13 and Harvey blocking and returning a punt by Yorkville on Sept. 8.
“I started off the season slow because I was nervous since it was my first time playing in that spot,” Villalobos said. “I just grew in that spot and I love it now… I don’t know where I’ll be at next year, but if I’m back at that spot, I need to be vocal with the whole defense and be more of a leader out there.”
Harvey was second on the Hubs with 64 total tackles, and the senior recorded eight tackles-for-loss and one sack. Both linebackers were instrumental to a Rochelle defense that allowed 16.4 points per game as well as seven points or less in three of its four NIB-12 West games this season.
“We combined our speed and strength pretty well with our bigger guys inside and our faster guys outside,” Harvey said. “Everybody did their job and we figured out how to work well together. We had really good chemistry and we were able to do really well as a group.”
