ALFRED, NY – For the second straight week, Maleke Fuentes (Olean, NY/Olean), a junior tailback on the Alfred University football team, has earned weekly honors from the Empire 8 Conference.

The conference named Fuentes Offensive Player of the Week for his play in Saturday's 61-12 Empire 8 win at Hartwick College. He ran for a career-high 217 yards on just 21 carries (10.3 yards per carry) with two touchdowns.  The 217 rushing yards is the seventh-most in a game in AU program history and led a Saxon ground attack that piled up 445 rushing yards on the day.

Fuentes' honor comes a week after he was named Empire 8 Offensive Player of the Week for his performance in a 41-28 win over visiting Cortland on Oct. 15. In that game, he rushed for 155 yards on just 15 carries, averaging 10.3 yards per attempt.

In his last two games, Fuentes has run for 372 yards, giving him 640 yards on just 85 carries (7.5 yards per attempts) and five touchdowns. His 91.4 yards per game rank second in the Empire 8 and leads a Saxon rushing attack that has produced a league-high 269 yards rushing per contest.

AU (7-0, 5-0 Empire 8) is ranked 15^th and 20^th, respectively, in this week's D3football.com and American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) national Top 25 polls. The Saxons play next on Saturday, Oct. 29, at 1 p.m. against Empire 8 foe Brockport.