Stonehill College freshman quarterback Cruz Parsons has been named as this week’s recipient of The Boston Globe Division II-III Gold Helmet Award as presented by the New England Football Writers. Parsons received the honor during the weekly New England Football Writers Luncheon hosted at Harvard University’s Dillon Field House in Cambridge, Mass.
A native of Signal Hill, Calif. and a graduate of Long Beach Poly High School, Parsons completed 25-of-33 passes for 275 yards and a school record-tying six touchdowns in Stonehill’s 41-7 Northeast-10 Conference victory over Saint Anselm last Saturday afternoon at W.B. Mason Stadium. Parsons connected with senior wide out Mike Plichta (Milford, Mass./Milford) for five of those scoring passes, as Plichta was on the receiving end of 12 catches for 179 yards while setting a Skyhawk single-game record with the five touchdown receptions.
In just his second collegiate start, Parsons connected on scoring passes of 17, 48, 18, 16, 15 and six yards in the triumph for Head Coach Chris Woods’s squad, and he accounted for 97.2 percent of Stonehill’s total offense for the day in adding 41 rushing yards to his 275 passing yards to amass 316 of the Skyhawks’ 325 yards for the contest. In three appearances (two starts) at the quarterback spot, Parsons has completed 36-of-56 attempts for 383 yards and seven touchdowns while posting a pass efficiency rating of 159.41.
Parsons was also named on Monday as the Northeast-10 Conference Freshman of the Week for his efforts in Stonehill’s victory over Saint Anselm, as the Skyhawks registered their highest single-game point total in nearly three years and notched their second win in the last three seasons over the Hawks. Teammate Plichta was also honored as the Northeast-10 Offensive Player of the Week after setting the Stonehill single-game touchdown reception mark and tying the conference record in that category first set by Bentley’s Dallas Mall in 2001.
Parsons becomes the fifth player in Stonehill history to be honored with The Boston Globe Gold Helmet Award as presented by the New England Football Writers, as former Skyhawk standouts Tony DelloIacono (1994), Mike McLucas (1994), Dan Field (1995) and Tyrone Jefferson (2000) are the previous Skyhawks to have received the accolade.