WASHINGTON, Pa. — Patience is not a popular word in Jordan Roycroft's vocabulary.

But he now realizes its value.

The 2007 Butler High graduate, now a senior wide receiver at Washington & Jefferson College, was named Player of the Week in the Presidents' Athletic Conference after a record-setting performance Saturday.

Roycroft caught 14 passes for 145 yards and three touchdowns in his team's 29-21 loss to Thomas More (Ohio). The 14 receptions marked a W&J single-game record.

"Jordan entered this season as our No. 1 receiver," W&J coach Mike Sirianni said. "He's waited his turn to get there. It's been a natural progression for him.

"You like to have your football players playing their best ball as seniors, improving year by year. That's certainly been Jordan's case."

But not by Roycroft's choice.

After a stellar career with the Golden Tornado, he headed to W&J expecting to earn playing time right away. He caught 102 passes for 1,355 yards in a three-year varsity career, never compiling more than nine receptions in a game.

He caught all of five passes in his first two seasons at W&J.

"It was a little humbling, really," Roycroft admitted. "Going to a Division III school, I figured if I worked hard enough, I'd get on the field fairly quickly.

"There were receivers already there who were better than me. I learned from them, tried to run similar routes and emulated how they went about their business."

Tom McCafferty caught 63 passes for 1,050 yards and 14 touchdowns for the Presidents during Roycroft's freshman year. Craig Besong caught 90 passes for 1,064 yards and nine TDs for the team last year.

"Talk about role models. I picked up a lot from those guys," Roycroft said.

The 6-foot-2, 205-pound Roycroft caught 30 passes for 429 yards and five touchdowns last year. He has 23 catches for 204 yards and four TDs through three games this season.

"Jordan made some outstanding catches (last Saturday)," Sirianni said. "I never realized he made that many catches until I looked at the stat sheet after the game."

While Roycroft made 14 catches that day, no other W&J receiver has more than eight this season.

"All I'm trying to do is help the team win," Roycroft said."If that means catching a bunch of balls or blocking all day, I'll do it."

One of Roycroft's catches Saturday was a 43-yard bomb on a third-and-18 play.

Roycroft has come to enjoy winning. He's been a member of three consecutive Division III playoff teams at W&J, though this year's team is off to a 1-2 start.

"That's one of the reasons I came here," Roycroft said. "We won 10 games my first year here. That's as many as we won in my career at Butler."

W&J already has lost two regular season games for the first time since 2003.

"But we've lost to two top-10 ranked teams," Sirianni pointed out. "I still believe we're a top-20 team and Jordan may be the biggest playmaker on our team."

"It's been a rewarding experience coming here." Roycroft said. "This is the situation I wanted to be in for my last football season — except for those two losses.

"We still have time to do something about that."

Butler graduate Jordan Roycroft has improved his numbers with increased playing time as a wide receiver at Washington & Jefferson College:<B>Year - Catches - Yards - TD</b>2007 - 1 - 6 - 02008 - 4 - 35 - 02009 - 30 - 429 - 5*2010 - 23 - 204 - 4* through 3 games