It’s a rivalry again: Waynesburg stuns W&J
Katie Roupe / Observer-Reporter
Katie Roupe / Observer-Reporter Waynesburg’s Josh Mundell pushes W&J’s Daniel Lis out of bounds after Lis caught a pass for a first down.
Katie Roupe / Observer-Reporter Waynesburg’s quarterback Carter Hill threw four touchdown passes Saturday W&J and became the Yellow Jackets’ career leader in TD passes.
WAYNESBURG – Suddenly, it’s back to being a rivalry.
That became clear on a cold Saturday afternoon at Wiley Stadium, where Waynesburg University’s football team handed Washington & Jefferson one of its most bitter losses in this 42-game series.
Scott Lewis sent a 34-yard field goal through the uprights in the first overtime to cap a 31-28 victory that not only sent the Presidents home with their first loss of the season but possibly sent them on the road for the first round of the NCAA Division III playoffs.
W&J (7-1, 9-1) had already locked up a spot in the playoffs, thanks to an earlier win over Thomas More. A victory over Waynesburg would have probably assured a home playoff game Saturday. Now, the Presidents will learn their destiny today during the NCAA selection show at 6 p.m. (www.ncaa.org).
Waynesburg will find out Monday if an invitation will be presented to play in an ECAC bowl game.
Unquestionably, W&J head coach Mike Sirianni provided Waynesburg some Grade A locker room fodder when he said earlier in the week that, “It’s a rivalry when the other team wins once in a while. They haven’t won since 2003. Our rivalry is with Thomas More now.”
Following the game, Sirianni said he regretted his words.
“I probably should not have said it wasn’t a rivalry,” he said. “It is, and I’ll take the blame for that. It just shows what type of kids they have. They played better and deserved to win this game.”
Waynesburg head coach Rick Shepas said “we didn’t talk about that” but it was clearly on the minds of some players.
“Trust me, it’s a rivalry,” said Waynesburg wide receiver Bernie Thompson, who had 10 catches, two of which went for touchdowns. “It motivated us. The last few years, things didn’t turn out the way we wanted. But we were the better team today.”
So how would he celebrate.
“I’ll get together with the other seniors,” he said. “We won’t do much. We won’t set any couches on fire if that’s what you mean.”
Waynesburg rolled up 425 yards against W&J’s defense and quarterback Carter Hill had one of his best games. The senior completed 32 of 51 passes for 366 yards, the most allowed by W&J this season.
He threw three interceptions, and even had one returned for a touchdown by linebacker Ryan Torrance in the third quarter that gave W&J a 21-14 lead. But Hill tossed four touchdown passes, two apiece to Andrew English and Thompson.
Hill set the school record for career touchdown passes in the first half, passing Jeff Dumm, and has 67 for his career.
“I didn’t even know about the record until Thursday,” said Hill. “I try not to care about that stuff. I know this win means a lot to our coaches. They deserve it. This senior class wanted to win it for them.”
The second TD toss to Thompson gave Waynesburg a 28-21 lead with 10:20 to play.
But W&J was not going to go that easily.
The Presidents drove to the Waynesburg 11-yard line but a sack of quarterback Pete Coughlin on third down and an incomplete pass by Coughlin on fourth down turned it back over with 5:49 left.
W&J got the ball back with 2:01 to play, and this time Coughlin led them to the tying score. He completed 7 of 9 passes, the final one a beautiful 28-yard strike to Max Creighan in the end zone that sent the game to overtime.
W&J got the ball first and tailback Ryan Ruffing gained 10 of his 151 yards for a first down at the 15. But three plays gained one yard and Sirianni sent Blake Davis out for a 31-yard field goal. Waynesburg defensive tackle J.T. Thompson stuck his arm up and blocked it. It was the fifth time in the game W&J failed to convert a fourth-down play.
“I coached a terrible game,” said Sirianni. “We had the fourth-down (problems) and we couldn’t convert in the red zone.”
Interestingly, Hill threw twice into the end zone on Waynesburg’s OT possession, both incomplete. Hill hit Tim Cooper with an 8-yard pass to the 17 and Lewis ended it with the field goal.
“If you watch the film of this game, you’ll see I tackled him after he kicked it, because I knew he was going to make it,” Hill said. “Everyone said it was closer (to missing) than I thought, but it looked good to me.”
The two teams were tied, 14-14, at halftime. Hill hit English with a 25-yard TD and Thompson from 4 yards. Coughlin found Ruffing from 5 yards in the first quarter and Ruffing ran it in from 3 in the second quarter as the two teams traded scores.
The win puts Waynesburg’s record at 4-38 in the series but more important, the Yellow Jackets are on a one-game winning streak.
“We have 24 seniors and they have been great leaders on this team, even as underclassmen,” said Shepas. “They deserved this win. How many times has No. 6 (Hill) won a game for us?”
English had 10 receptions for 181 yards and the two scores. Creighan had 10 for 96. … Waynesburg punter Jonathan Hager was superb, averaging 46.7 yards. He had a long of 60 yards and one that traveled 50. … Torrance had a team-high 10 catches. Mike Lopuchovsky had a game-high 16 tackles for Waynesburg. Defensive end Josh Tolliver had two sacks of Coughlin and linebacker Kyle Richey 10 tackles.