May 21, 2007

A pair of Sacred Heart football alums, quarterback Tyler Arciaga (Bonita, CA) '07 and return specialist Pete Athans (Ocean, NJ) '04, have teamed up on the gridiron in Europe's Austrian Football League, staring with the Danube Dragons.

Arciaga is coming off his best game in a Dragon uniform, completing 12 of 24 passes for 207 yards and three touchdowns including a 64 yard bomb in a 35-23 win over the Hohenems Blue Devils on Saturday. The Dragons are 3-2 through five games with four contests left on the schedule.

On the year, Arciaga has completed 71 of 137 passes (52.0%) for 835 yards (167.0 per game). He has thrown for nine touchdowns with four interceptions and has run for another score.

He finished up his two year career with the Pioneers this past fall, finishing as the school's all-time leader in passing yards with 4,470 yards. Arciaga finished his career with 36 touchdown passes, second all-time. The 6-3 quarterback finished his career with 393 completions (57.0 comp %), 4,470 yards (212.0 yds per game) and 36 touchdowns.

In addition to the career passing yards record, Arciaga holds the school records for career completions (393), completions in a season (182 - 2005), completions in a game (30 vs. Stony Brook 2006), passing yards in a game (323 vs. Central CT 2005), passing attempts in a game (47 vs. Stony Brook 2006), career passing attempts (689), passing attempts in a season (368 - 2006), touchdown passes in a game (4 vs. Iona 2005), completion percentage in a season (57.3% - 2006) and career completion percentage (57.0%).

Athens is the Dragon's multi-purpose star, returning kicks while seeing action on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball. He is tops on the team in all-purpose yards with 506 (167.0 yards per game). Athens has returned 16 kick-offs on the year for 421 yards (26.3) and a touchdown and six punts for 62 yards (10.3). He has run the ball 11 times on the year for 130 yards including an 18 yard scamper for six points in their win on Saturday. From the defensive backfield, Athens has made a team-best 26 tackles, 18 solo, with a sack and three pass break-ups.

Athens played his final season in the Red & White in 2003, leaving the Pioneers as one of the program's top all-around athletes. A corner in the defensive backfield, Athens finished his career with 261 total tackles (156 solo / 105 assisted) and 11 interceptions. His 11 picks rank second all time.

As the Pioneers top return threat, Athens re-wrote the SHU record book. He holds the records for kickoff return yards in a season (789 - 2003), kickoff returns in a season (35 - 2003), kickoff returns in a game (7 vs. Albany and Stony Brook - 2003), punt return yards in game (128 vs. Robert Morris - 2003), punt return yards in a season (323 - 2002), career punt return yards (588), punt return attempts in a game (11 vs. Siena - 2002), punt return attempts in a season (32 - 2002) and career punt return attempts (57). He finished his career with 1,126 all-purpose yards and averaged 22.9 yards per kickoff return. He returned two punts for touchdowns.

The former SHU duo wrap up their season with the Dragons next month. For more information on the Austrian Football League and the Danube Dragons, visit click here to visit the Dragon's web site.