NATCHITOCHES –  Northwestern State's Phillip Harvey was named the Sports Network/Fathead.com FCS National Special Teams Player of the Week on Monday and also won Southland Conference and Louisiana Sports Writers Association special teams honors after a 99-yard kickoff return touchdown Saturday night, while an 82-yard scoring run propelled Demons' tailback D.J. Palmer to receive the Southland Offensive Player of the Week award.
 
Their performances were among highlights of the Demons' 51-17 Homecoming win over Southeastern Louisiana Saturday night in a Southland Conference football game at NSU's Turpin Stadium.
 
Harvey, a 5-foot-7, 155-pound junior receiver and returner from Lancaster, Texas, tied a school record with 193 yards on three kickoff returns.
 
He took the second half kickoff 99 yards, the second-longest runback in school history behind a 100-yarder by Kenny Thompson in 1961. He added a pair of 47-yard returns to tie a single-game school mark for yardage set by Vic Nyvall in 1969 and tied by James Brock in 1992. With 555 kickoff return yards this fall, he is tracking toward shattering the single-season record of 710 by Toby Zeigler in 2004, while his 1,562 career yards are just 81 away from breaking the Demons' career mark by Dennis Smith from 1986-89.
 
Harvey became the second Southland Conference player to earn a Sports Network/Fathead.com FCS national player of the week honor this season. Central Arkansas quarterback Nathan Dick won the offensive award after throwing for 372 yards and four touchdowns in an overtime loss at Louisiana Tech.
 
Harvey was also named National FCS Kickoff Returner of the Week by the College Football Performance Awards.
 
Palmer (5-11, 195) posted his first career 100-yard rushing game as a tailback for NSU, and the first by any Demon in 13 games. The sophomore from Many had 102 yards on 15 carries, and added 25 yards on two receptions, while being among six tailbacks who played for Northwestern against SLU.
 
His 82-yard run came less than five minutes into the game and boosted the Demons ahead 17-0. It was the longest run by an NSU player since 2003 and was four yards shy of cracking the school's all-time top 10 list of long runs.
 
Northwestern (4-3 overall, 3-1 in the Southland, tied for second) cracked the 50-point barrier in a Southland game for the first time since routing Sam Houston State 59-3 in 1998. It was the highest point total by the Demons since a 63-12 romp over Division II Southeast Oklahoma in 2008 and the most points against a Division I team since 2004 and a 52-6 romp over Texas Southern.

Palmer (5-11, 195) scored his third touchdown of the season. He is the team's leading rusher for the season with 251 yards on 48 carries, a 5.2 average that leads the team.
 
The Demons have an open date this week, play at Texas State in a non-conference game on Oct. 29, and host Central Arkansas on Nov. 5. After a Nov. 12 visit to Sam Houston State, they wrap up the regular season at home in Turpin Stadium on Nov. 19 against Stephen F. Austin.