GREENVILLE, Pa. -- Big plays led the No. 16 Washington &
Jefferson football team to its 24th Presidents' Athletic Conference
title and 24th NCAA Division III Playoffs appearance in a 49-18 win
at Thiel.
With the win, the Presidents move to 9-0 on the season and 7-0 in
league action. Thiel falls to 3-6, 2-5 in the PAC.
W&J racked up 701 yards of total offense in the win, the first
time topping 700 yards since Oct. 18, 2008 in a 72-20 win over
Saint Vincent. It was also the first time the Presidents went over
600 yards since topping Bethany three weeks later that season.
W&J's first play from scrimmage was a 73-yard touchdown pass
from quarterback Pete
Coughlin to freshman wide receiver Jesse
Zubik, 7-0.
Following a Presidents' fumble at the W&J 21, Thiel's Ryan
Radke tossed a 20-yard touchdown pass, but the extra-point attempt
was missed twice due to an offside penalty against W&J,
7-6.
The ensuing drive led to an 18-yard touchdown pass once again to
Zubik as the Presidents took a 14-6 lead with 2:52 to play in the
first quarter.
Ryan
Ruffing got in on the act just under four minutes into
the second quarter when he broke off a career-long 63-yard
touchdown rush to push the lead to 21-6, which held up at
halftime.
Another 20-yard scoring play for the Tomcats led to a 21-12 margin
after the two-point conversion failed with 8:41 to play in the
third quarter.
W&J needed just 1:01 to answer back as Daniel
Lis broke multiple tackles on a 63-yard catch-and-run,
putting W&J ahead 28-21 with 7:40 left in the third.
On the Presidents' last drive of the third quarter, Coughlin hit
Zubik for an 80-yard touchdown on a screen play for the
second-straight week, 35-12.
After Thiel punted to end the third quarter, Ruffing capped the
first drive of the fourth quarter with a 32-yard touchdown run, his
23rd of the year and 26th total touchdown.
The scoring for W&J concluded with a 19-yard run by
quarterback Kevin
Mechas at the 5:57-mark of the fourth quarter, pushing
the score to 49-12. The scoring rush was set up by a 66-yard jaunt
by David
Kincaid on the first play of the drive.
In total, the W&J offense had five of its top eight longest
plays of the season in the contest and a total of nine plays from
scrimmage over 20 yards in rolling up 701 yards of total offense
and 367 rushing.
Ruffing finished with a career-high 196 yards and two scores on 23
carries. Kincaid had 69 yards on two rushes and Coughlin and
Alex
Rowse each pitched in 41 yards on the ground, Rowse's all
coming on one carry.
Coughlin completed 17-of-21 passes for 334 yards, the fifth
300-yard game he's thrown for this season. He threw four touchdowns
in the win.
All of Coughlin's passes went to three receivers as Zubik led all
players with a career-high 190 yards and three scores on just five
catches. In his last two games, the three-time ECAC Division III
Southwest Rookie of the Week has five touchdown snags and 291 yards
on eight catches. Lis hauled in a team-best seven passes for 94
yards and a score, while Max
Creighan made five catches for 50 yards.
Three Presidents reached double digits in tackles, with Ryan
Torrance leading the way at 11. Alec
Schram and Bryce
Merrill each added 10 stops with seven solo. PAC-leading
tackler Jared
Pratt made nine stops with 3.0 going for loss, including
a sack. Dan
Graziano made seven tackles, 2.0 for loss, and a sack.
Justin
Bauer and Jon
Turner contributed 1.5 and 1.0 sacks, respectively.
W&J closes out the regular season with the annual PAC Backyard
Brawl next Saturday, Nov. 15 at Waynesburg. Kick-off at Wiley
Stadium is set for 1:30 p.m.
Big plays lead No. 16 W&J to 24th PAC crown and NCAA bid
/seasons/2014/boxscores/20141108_wha3.xml
2014
Washington and Jefferson
49
Thiel
18
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | T |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. 19 Washington and Jefferson (9-0) | 14 | 7 | 14 | 14 | 49 |
| Thiel (3-6) | 6 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 18 |
Nov 08, 2014