SELINSGROVE, PA – Susquehanna University sophomore halfback Jordan Rawlins and senior offensive lineman Jared Villella are this week’s co-recipients of the team’s Gus Weber Crusader Player of the Week, sponsored by the Golden Corral Family Steak House along Routes 11 & 15 in Shamokin Dam.

Rawlins (Bloomsburg, PA/Bloomsburg H.S.) carried 15 times for 156 yards and two long first-half touchdowns while Villella (Sinclairville, NY/Cassadaga Valley H.S.) led the offensive line which helped the Crusaders roll up 295 yards on the ground as Susquehanna picked up its first win of the season with a 49-28 victory at Delaware Valley on Saturday.

Rawlins scored on a 48-yard run on the game’s second play from scrimmage and added a 57-yard score in the second quarter. He also had a 68-yard touchdown run called back because of holding in the third quarter. Rawlins’ 156 yards were the most for a Crusader back in nearly two years and more than tripled the team’s output for its first two games.

Through three games, Rawlins leads the Crusaders and ranks eighth in the Middle Atlantic Conference with 186 yards rushing on 32 carries (5.8 average).

Villella, a two-year starter at right guard, was part of an ground effort that lost yards on just two of 37 rushing plays and did not allow a sack in 19 pass attempts.

The Golden Corral will donate $50 apiece in the names of Rawlins and Villella to the charities of their choice. Now in their sixth year of sponsorship of the Gus Weber Player of the Week award, Golden Corral has donated $4,900 to charity in the names of Susquehanna players.

The Player of the Week award is named after former Susquehanna University president Gustave Weber, who served as president of Susquehanna for more than 18 years and was a former standout player at Wagner College. He was an avid booster of Crusader athletics, and in particular the football team, which he coached for the final two games of the 1965 season.

Rawlins and Villella will be the guest speakers at Friday’s Quarterback Club luncheon, which begins at noon in the Shearer-Weber Dining Room in the Degenstein Campus Center. They will also be the guests on the Coach’s Corner Show, which can be heard each Saturday beginning 30 minutes before kickoff.