Friday, November 30, 2012

The Valparaiso football team had four players selected by College Sports Madness to its PFL All-League teams, highlighted by the choice of redshirt freshman running back Jake Hutson (Blanchard, Mich./Montabella) as the league's Freshman of the Year.

Hutson, who also was named to the All-League Second Team, led the Crusaders and ranked third in the PFL with 753 rushing yards during his rookie season. The redshirt freshman, who was named to the Jerry Rice Award watch list, also ranked fourth in the league in all-purpose yardage (1,216 yards) and scoerd eight touchdowns for the Crusaders.

Senior punter Greg Wood (Libertyville, Ill./Libertyville) was named to the All-League First Team after leading the league in punting average, averaging 40.9 yards per kick. 14 of Wood's 69 punts sailed at least 50 yards, with back-to-back 60+ yard efforts in the home finale against Davidson. The senior placed 29 of his punts inside the 20-yard line, while only two of Wood's punts went for touchbacks.

Valpo also had a pair of players chosen to the Third Team as well. Senior offensive lineman Bill Bodzianowski (Joliet, Ill./Joliet Catholic) started all 11 games at right guard for the Crusaders in 2012. Junior linebacker Pat Derbak (Schaumburg, Ill./Schaumburg) finished second on the team with 73 tackles, including 37 solo stops and six tackles for loss.