Courtesy of Mass. Maritime Sports Information

Massachusetts Maritime senior linebacker Marshall McCarthy is one of 81 national finalists from across three divisions of play for the 2016 Cliff Harris Award presented to the nation's top small college defensive player.  The announcement was made over the weekend by the Little Rock (Ark.) Touchdown Club, which will name the recipient of this year's prestigious honor on Christmas Eve.

A total of 29 NCAA Division III student-athletes were named as finalists for this year's Harris Award, as McCarthy is one of three players from New England institutions to advance to the final selection stage.  There are 30 NCAA Division II student-athletes among this year's finalists, while NAIA placed a total of 22 players in that exclusive group.

McCarthy, a native of Duxbury, Mass. and a graduate of Duxbury High School, was named as the 2016 Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year for his performance for Head Coach Jeremy Cameron's squad this fall, as he recorded 108 total tackles in just nine games played during the season to rank 12^th nationally in NCAA Division III that category.  Marshall led the country in solo stops with 83 overall (9.2 per game), and he became the first player in school history to post back-to-back 100-tackle campaigns.  In just 19 games played in a Massachusetts Maritime uniform, McCarthy registered 155 solo and 53 assisted stops for 208 total tackles, including a career-high 20 back on October 22^nd at UMass Dartmouth, and he notched the fewest number of assisted tackles (25) of any player ranked in the top 50 nationally this season.  A two-time all-MASCAC honoree, Marshall averaged nearly 11 tackles per game over the last two years for the Buccaneers, as he reached double-digits in stops 12 times (including seven this season) during that time span.

Earlier this month, McCarthy became the sixth player in Massachusetts Maritime history to earn a spot on the prestigious New England Football Writers Association all-star squad and the third in the last five seasons to receive all-New England recognition.  He also earned a spot on the D3football.com All-East Region second team.

The Cliff Harris Award is named for the six-time Dallas Cowboys Pro Bowler, who played in five Super Bowls after entering the National Football League as an undrafted rookie out of NAIA Ouachita Baptist University.  The Harris Award represents over 5,000 defensive players from almost 500 schools competing at the NCAA Division II and III level along with NAIA member institutions.  A prestigious 13-person committee, headed by Harris and NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Roger Staubach of the Dallas Cowboys, will select this year's recipient, who will become the fourth winner of the award.

For more information on the Cliff Harris Award, please visit www.CliffHarrisAward.com.