MAY 9, 2014

KING'S  FOOTBALL NAMES HARTRANFT, KAIJALA, KEMPA, MATTHEWS, SANTORELLI 2014 TEAM CAPTAINS

WILKES-BARRE --  King's College head football coach Jeff Knarr has announced the selection of Tyler Hartranft (Schuylkill Haven/Blue Mountain), Nick Kaijala (Succasunna, NJ/Roxbury), Dan Kempa (Susquehanna/Blue Ridge-Susquehanna), Kris Matthews Seymour, CT/Notre Dame), and Peter Santorelli (Hillsborough/Hillsborough) as the Monarchs' 2014 team captains.

All five players will be entering their senior campaigns this season and played a major part of the Monarchs improving from 3-7 overall and 2-7 in the Middle Atlantic Conference in 2012 to 6-4 and 6-3 in 2013.

A 6-foot, 190-pound quarterback, Hartranft comes off a solid 2013 season in which he started all 10 games, completing 150-of-287 passes for 2,103 yards with 16 touchdowns and seven interceptions for the Monarchs. Over the course of his two years at King's, Hartranft has completed 287-of-555 passes for 3,909 yards with 26 touchdowns. Hartranft surpassed 200 yards passing in six of the team's 10 games and threw for a season-high 295 yards in a last-second 28-24 victory over Lycoming.

Kaijala, a 5-foot-10, 200-pound linebacker, enjoyed an outstanding 2013 campaign, his first as a starter after serving as a quality reserve in 2012.  In 10 games, Kaijala posted a team-high 78 total tackles with 35 solo and 43 assists. He tied for the team lead with 12.0 tackles for loss and topped the squad with 6.5 quarterback sacks. Kaijala also forced three fumbles with one recovery and added one pads interceptions. He has registered 97 tackles over the past two seasons.

Kempa, meanwhile, emerged as one of the top wide receivers in the MAC in his second year as a starter.  The 5-foot-11, 190-pound Kempa earned first-team All-MAC honors after catching a school-record 58 passes for a program-best 1,057 yards with nine touchdowns. He averaged 105.7 receiving yards per-game and averaged 18.2 yards each reception.  In his first season as a starter in 2012, Kempa made 31 catches for 648 yards with four scores. Kempa also doubles as a top return specialist led King's with a combined 1,689 all-purpose yards in 2013, averaging 168.9 yards per-game.

The 6-foot-1, 210-pound Matthews is a two-year starter at safety and has finished among King's top-two tacklers each of the past two years. A year atom Matthews was second on the team with 73 tackles, including two interceptions, two fumble recoveries, and broke up five passes.  As a sophomore in 2012, he led the Monarchs with 78 tackles, including two interceptions, one fumble recovery, and one forced fumble. He has a combined 151 tackles the sat two seasons with four interceptions and three fumble recoveries.

Santorelli, a 6-foot-2, 260-pound nose-guard, has played in 29 games at King's, making 23 starts. Last season he made 41 tackles with 5.0 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks with one interception and one forced fumble. As a sophomore he posted 27 tackles with 3.0 tackles for loss and 2.0 sacks while recovering one fumble. Over the course of his career he has made 80 tackles with 9.0 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks.

The Monarchs will open their season September 7 in Bethlehem against host Moravian College at a time to be announced.