sports Information 360 huntington ave. , ma 02115 NORT telephone: 617-437-2691

JACK GRINOLD For Immediate Release: Jan. 1 1 , 1 994

HOPKINS EARNS LETIER AT NORTHEASTERN

Mark Hopkins, a native of Plainfield, NJ, was recently awarded a varsity letter for his contributions to the Northeastern University football team. The announcement came from third year head coach Barry Gallup. It was Hopkins' second letter in football but not his second overall. Hopkins is also a big-hitting outfielder for the Northeastern baseball team. In fact, Hopkins led the team in batting last season and is one of the keys to the Huskies upcoming baseball season. While on the gridiron Hopkins does his hitting in t he defensive backfield. He racked up 61 tackles and four interceptions this season for the Huskies and helped solidify one of the toughest secondaries in the Yankee Conference. Northeastern's 2-9 record did not reflect the fact that the Huskies were in position to win seven of the games they dropped in their debut Yankee Conference season. After a resounding 27-3, season-opening victory at Villanova, Northeastern lost a seesaw, 27-1 3 decision at Boise State. The next three games were even more frustrating, as a total of eight points separated ( 1 5-1 3, last second Rhody field goal), Richmond ( 2 4-21), and playoff-bound ( 17-1 4 at Parsons Field) from the Huskies. A decisive road victory over (34-20) induced high hopes for the final game against --another NU YanCon foe that went to the Division 1 AA playoffs--when a last minute fumble on the opponent goal line punctuated a hard luck season and a 28-23 loss to the Blue Hens. Barry Gallup's Huskies found little consolation in losing four games by a total of 1 3 points. Individually, several Huskies had banner seasons on the gridiron. Senior strong safety Mark Salisbury earned his third straight trip to the Football All Star squad; junior free safety Jason Seapker scaled the century mark in tackles with 1 02 to lead the squad; and freshman Brian Vaughan, an ECAC Rookie of the Week selection, caught a team-high 37 passes and ran for 31 6 yards from the halfback position. A 1 99 1 graduate of Seton Hall Prep, Mark played football, baseball and track, captaining the latter two. He was also named All-Conference, All-Area, All­ County and All-State for football. "Happy" is a Communications Studies major and will graduate from Northeastern's widely-renowned Cooperative Education program in 1996.

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