The co-college-player-of-the-week honors for Jan. 27-29 are shared by UC Santa Barbara teammates Alex Asturius and John Gallo, who combined for six tries in the Gauchos’ 43-15 defeat of UC Irvine. Asturius, a junior scrumhalf, scored a pair of first-half tries and one in the second half, and Gallo, from the wing, scored one first-half try, followed by a pair in the second half.

Gallo is a well-known commodity for the Gauchos, having been named a RUGBYMag DI (now DI-AA) All American last season. Asturius, however, is a little less well known. He’s a converted wing who had to fight for the starting scrumhalf spot this preseason with two other candidates. He was awarded the job the week leading up to the Irvine game.

“He did a decent job directing the team and he got his scores off of just working really well with the forwards. We took a lot of their scrum ball, and Alex was a recipient of that a couple of times,” said UCSB coach Kevin Battle.

“That last try that was scored in the 80-th minute, he and Gallo actually teamed up on a really long break, and (Asturius) did a lot of work to finish off the last 30 meters by himself.”

Gallo also does the kicking for UCSB.