ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The star of the show for a squad that accomplished its first shutout in a conference matchup since 2006, senior safety Caleb Francis of the 25^th-ranked Presbyterian College football team was awarded the PFL Defensive Player of the Week on Sunday afternoon.

Snatching his eighth career interception on the very first snap and then his ninth pick to finish off a 4^th-quarter goal-line stand, Francis captained a Blue Hose defense that opened up Pioneer League action yesterday with a 41-0 pummeling over Morehead State.

Still perfect at 5-0 and extending the nation's longest active winning streak in NCAA Division I football (nine games), Francis and the PC defense have not allowed an offensive touchdown in their last 10 quarters of action.






 
MOREHEAD MAULING

 
- Francis logged six tackles to complement his pair of picks, including one stop behind the line of scrimmage throughout a vicious first-half performance where Presbyterian assumed a 35-0 lead.

- The Jacksonville native came into Saturday's game needing just one more INT to break the school record in the D-I era for most career interceptions.

- Four seconds into the game, he broke that record (passing former Blue Hose greats Ed Britt and Big South Hall of Famer Justin Bethel).

- He put an exclamation point on PC's domination over Morehead by landing his second interception of the game on 4^th down in the end zone. It was the last of five failed fourth-down attempts by a woeful Eagle offense.


 
FIRST TIME IN 19 YEARS

 
- Head coach Steve Englehart's troops completed their first shutout in a conference setting since all the way back in 2006 (a November win against Newberry by a 10-0 tally).

- Six of Morehead State's nine drives in the first half ended with either an interception, fumble, or turnover on downs. MSU had zero passing yards over the entire first quarter and only made it past the PC 30-yard line three times in 13 series.

- Yesterday's beatdown was Englehart's second shutout over his time in Clinton, also blanking Virginia-Lynchburg at Bailey Memorial Stadium 52-0 last year.


 
PFL PLAYERS OF THE WEEK: ENGLEHART ERA

 
- Francis becomes the seventh individual to win a weekly award by the Pioneer Football League in the Englehart era and the fourth defensive player to be recognized (along with Alex Herriott, Brooks Russ-Martin, and Carter Szydlowski).

- The last two times that Morehead State has visited PC, the result has ended with a Blue Hose victory and a PFL Defensive Player of the Week selection (Russ-Martin did the honors back in 2023).


 
LOOKING AHEAD

 
- With nine consecutive W's to their name (the most in either FBS or FCS along with Memphis and Tennessee Tech), Presbyterian will enter their BYE week with one conference game in the books.

- Their next outing will come on October 11 with a trip to Indianapolis where they'll go head-to-head with Butler. PC knocked off the Bulldogs – then ranked #23 in the country – in last season's finale, coming away with a 30-27 triumph.