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Presidents ad-lib in victory over Thiel
Staff writer
jmontecalvo@observer-reporter.com
Over the last three weeks, the Washington & Jefferson College football team followed a simple script: Take the ball, score early and often, and cruise to a blowout win.
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The gap was usually so wide by the time the first quarter ended, opponents didn't have much of a chance. Since Geneva scored on W&J's first defensive series of the year in Week 1, the Presidents had not given up a point in 15 first-quarter possessions.
Saturday at W&J's Cameron Stadium, however, the script was flipped.
The scrappy Tomcats took the opening kickoff 31 yards and drove another 35 yards in 10 plays to score. Thiel then recovered a W&J fumble on the ensuing kickoff, and put together a 12-play, 28-yard scoring drive in which it converted twice on fourth down.
It seemed Thiel found a way to hold down the high-powered W&J offense. The Presidents didn't have the ball until 1:25 remained in the first quarter.
Fortunately for the Presidents, those two Thiel scores were Sammy Koyl field goals. And unfortunately for Thiel, it's tough to keep the Presidents from scoring for very long.
W&J's offense wasn't quite as sharp as in previous games, but the Presidents overcame the slow start, put together a few key drives, and showed they have a pretty good defense, too, in a 28-12 Homecoming victory.
"We knew it was going to be a close game," W&J head coach Mike Sirianni said. "After the fact, you're glad you have to get a couple drives together in the fourth quarter. We didn't score very well inside the red zone and we could have put the game away in the third quarter."
Leading 14-6 with a little over six minutes left before halftime, W&J (1-0, 5-0) drove from its own 20-yard line to the Thiel 24 before an illegal substitution penalty and subsequent incompletion on fourth down stopped the drive.
The Presidents put together another quality possession to start the second half, but the drive stalled when a fourth-down pass from the Tomcats' 27 fell incomplete.
W&J's next drive ended when, on second-and-15 from the Thiel 21-yard line, quarterback Bobby Swallow threw his first interception of the season.
But this is the type of game that has come to be expected between these squads in recent years.
W&J had to score 13 unanswered points in the fourth quarter and stop Thiel inside the 12-yard line four times to earn a 27-23 win in Greenville last year. In 2005, the Tomcats upset W&J, 38-35, on a Koyl field goal in overtime.
It appeared the game would go down to the wire again after quarterback Marc LaScola capped a 13-play, 80-yard drive with a seven-yard score on a bootleg that pulled Thiel (1-2, 2-4) to within 14-12 with 12:07 left in the game.
LaScola, Thiel's leading receiver entering the game, played quarterback after starter Willie Bova was injured last week.
"I thought we were in the game and could win it at that point," Thiel coach Jack Leipheimer said. "But when we have opportunities early, we have to get seven points, not three. That came back to haunt us."
The Presidents, ranked No. 9 in NCAA Division III, responded to the LaScola touchdown when they marched 81 yards, aided by consecutive runs of 18, 11 and 10 yards by halfback Curt Jones, and scored when Tom McCafferty hauled in his second touchdown pass of the game from Swallow for a 21-12 lead with 8:39 remaining.
Linebacker David Gitlitz, who led W&J with 14 tackles, intercepted a LaScola pass at the Thiel 35 and returned it to the seven-yard line less than a minute later.
"Our defense had to make something happen and get off the field to give our offense the ball," Gitlitz said. "But if you can't win a game when your offense scores 28 points, that's a defensive issue."
Two plays after the interception, Kevin Mathews scored from one-yard out to seal the win.
Mathews and Jones combined to rush for 134 yards. McCafferty, meanwhile, caught five passes for 109 yards, including a 57-yard scoring pass from Swallow in the second quarter.
Swallow, who completed 18 of 30 passes for 230 yards, hit Craig Besong in the back of the end zone for a 10-yard score and a 7-6 lead on W&J's first offensive possession.
"We held them to field goals instead of touchdowns on short fields and our defense should be credited with that," Sirianni said. "We overcame some adversity and I'm proud we got the win."
