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W&J roughs up Wooster

4 min read
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Coming into this season, three questions followed Washington & Jefferson College’s football team.

1. Would quarterback Pete Coughlin be able to continue with the solid play he showed last season?

2. Could Ryan Ruffing replace the productive Dion Wiegand at tailback?

3. Who would step up at wide receiver now that Alex Baroffio graduated?

Judging by Saturday night’s 51-17 victory over Wooster at Cameron Stadium, the answers were obvious:

1. Yes. 2. Yes. and 3. Max Creighan or Cody Stumpf or Eric Scott.

Coughlin completed 18 of 25 passes for 180 yards and is believed to be the first quarterback in the modern era for W&J to rush for 100 yards. Coughlin had 106 on 14 carries.

More important, Coughlin directed the offense to 37 straight points before coming out when the second-team offense took over.

“He practiced (with the first team) all year long because (Matt Bliss) couldn’t,” said W&J head coach Mike Sirianni. “He’s real comfortable running the offense. He made one or two mistakes tonight but he did well. The thing about him is he has tso improve. If he does, the sky is the limit for him.”

Ryan Ruffing, taking over the running attack from the graduated Dion Wiegand, had a magnificent start, rushing for 150 yards on 37 carries. He scored on runs of 9, 1, 7, 2 and 5 yards. The school record for touchdowns in a game is six, held Roy Hupp in 1905.

“We’re not trying to get people touchdowns,” Sirianni said. “We’re trying to run our offense and get first downs. I didn’t even know he had five.”

Creighan led W&J with six receptions and had 26 yards. Cody Stumpf finished with five receptions for 68 yards and Eric Scott had three for 55 yards.

“From 17-7 on, this has the making of a real special season,” said Sirianni. “We play Westminster next week. I’ve had this game circled on the calendar for months for a lot of reasons, and the team knows why.”

Sean Hackel rushed for 105 yards on 26 carries to lead Wooster’s ground game. Richard Barnes completed 8 of 19 passes for 183 yards and two touchdowns, but only had two completions before coming out in the second half.

W&J held a 24-17 lead at halftime but it was anything but easy as Wooster built a 10-0 lead and also held a 17-7 edge in the first half.

Barnes, who completed 6 of 11 passes for 141 yards, hit Darrian Owens with a 61-yard touchdown midway through the first quarter to take a 7-0 lead. Owens would burn the W&J secondary again, this time for 47 yards, to set up a 20-yard field goal by Trevor Bowden that made it 10-0 with 3:55 left in the first quarter.

The Presidents finally put together a scoring drive in the second quarter, going 79 yards in 10 plays. Coughlin found wide receiver Michael Giampole from 12 yards out to cut the lead to 10-7.

Wooster came right back when Barnes found Owens again, this time on a 29-yard slant pattern that capped a seven-play drive and made it 17-7. Owens had four receptions for 124 yards in the half.

A good kickoff return by Max Creighan helped the Presidents drive 65 yards on five plays and answer Wooster’s score. This time, it was Ruffing taking a pitch for a 9-yard touchdown run that made it 17-14.

Anthony Tutino’s intercepted Barnes at the 15 on the next series and W&J finally took the lead when Ruffing bulled over from one yard out to make 21-17.

Davis hit a 32-yard field goal as time expired in the half to push W&J’s lead to 24-17.

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