Sept. 22, 2008

EVANSTON, Ill. -- After posting a 16-8 victory over Ohio University this past Saturday to improve to 4-0 on the season, Northwestern has a pair of players being honored by the Big Ten Conference today.

Senior place-kicker Amado Villarreal (Englewood, Colo./Englewood) was tabbed the league's Special Teams Player of the Week after recording his second-straight double-digit scoring outing. He hit all three field goal attempts -- 33, 46 and 23 yards -- to give Northwestern a 9-0 first-half lead. He later added an extra point for his 10th tally of the day.

After hitting a career-best four field goals the previous week and scoring 15 points against Southern Illinois, Villarreal remains perfect on the year from field goal range (8-of-8) and PAT's (11-of-11). He leads the Big Ten in field goals made (2.0 per game) and ranks third nationally.

Redshirt freshman defensive end Vince Browne (Lisbon, Ohio/David Anderson), playing in just his fourth career game, earned co-Defensive Player of the Week honors with Penn State's Navorro Bowman. Browne led a record-setting effort as Northwestern held Ohio to a single-game school-record four rushing yards in the win over the Bobcats. He paced NU's defense with three of its five pass sacks and four of its 14 tackles for loss (for -25 yards). The Wildcats recorded 62 negative yards on the day.

Browne, who had seven total tackles, also added a forced fumble, a blocked field goal and a QB hurry. Northwestern also held its second straight opponent to single-digit points for the first time in 13 years. NU lowered its season defensive scoring average to 11.2 ppg.

Browne ranks fourth in the Big Ten in sacks per game and 29th nationally.