Cleveland, OH – Six members of the Wagner College football team have been named to Phil Steele's 2011 Preseason All-Northeast Conference Team.

Earning Pre-Season First-Team All-NEC honors are senior wide receiver David Crawford (Carrollton, TX/ Hebron), junior placekicker David Lopez (Plantation, FL/ American Heritage) and senior linebacker Julian Stanford (Bloomfield, CT/ Bloomfield). Named to the All-NEC team Second Team are senior wide receiver Justin Matthews (Hillside, NJ/ Hillside), junior defensive back Torian Phillips (Staten Island, NY/ Port Richmond) and junior running back Dominique Williams (Bridgton, NJ/ Milford).

Crawford is coming off a junior season where he led Wagner with 35 catches and 629 yards, good for a NEC-leading average of 18.0 yards per catch, with three touchdowns. The big-play wide receiver picked it up as the season went on, catching five balls for a career-high 117 yard at Albany before capping the season with four receptions for 79 yards and two touchdowns at Sacred Heart.

Lopez had a solid second year at Wagner, leading the team in scoring with 55 points. He was 11-for-17 on field goal attempts, including going 4-for-6 in on field goal attempts of at least 40 yards, while recording six touchbacks. The native Floridian was named The Sports Network/Fathead.com FCS National Special Teams Player of the Week for the week ending Saturday, Oct. 9 after kicking three field goals in the come-from-behind win over Georgetown, including a game-tying 54-yard boot that forced overtime.

Stanford matched fellow Second-Team selection Jason Riffe of Bryant with an NEC-best seven sacks while also ranking fourth in the league with 12.5 tackles for loss among his 64 total stops. The Nutmeg State native led a defensive unit that ranked second with 23 sacks. Stanford had a career-high 2.5 sacks in a 41-7 win over Cornell before matching that with 2.5 more sacks in the come-from-behind victory at Georgetown.

Matthews finished third on the team in receptions (30) and receiving yards (450) in 2010 and led the team with five touchdown receptions. He caught a career-long 88-yard touchdown pass vs. Cornell (9/18) and corralled a career-high seven receptions for 68 yards at Assumption (9/11). All told he caught three passes in a game on five different occasions.

Phillips had a productive season on the offensive side of the ball at running back before being switched to defensive back where he is coming off an excellent spring. A transfer from Syracuse University where he saw playing time in the secondary as a true freshman, he gained 250 yards rushing on 45 carries in 2010, which computes to a healthy 5.6 yards per carry average. He enjoyed a breakout game in week two in a 41-7 victory over Cornell when he exploded for 133 yards on just 16 carries, aided by a long run of 49 yards in the victory.

Williams, who sat out last season with a knee injury exploded on the scene as a freshman in 2009, earning three NEC Rookie of the Week honors. The dynamic and elusive Williams streaked his way for 642 yards and nine touchdowns on 113 attempts (average of 5.7 yards per carry) in 2009. He rushed for two touchdowns at SUNY-Maritime(9/10), including a 63 yard, season-long scamper and also had a sparkling 102 yard, four touchdown performance vs. Saint Francis (PA) (9/26).