Defense saves day for W&J
PITTSBURGH – It was a bizarre ending, but not much of this college football game was routine.
Washington & Jefferson relied on two facets that have not been particularly glamorous in games of this magnitude to win a crucial Presidents’ Athletic Conference matchup Saturday afternoon.
Defense and the running game.
W&J produced three touchdowns off turnovers, made a goal-line stand and the running game produced more yards than the vaunted Presidents’ passing attack, a rarity under head coach Mike Sirianni, to come away with a hard-fought 27-20 victory over Carnegie Mellon in a battle of unbeatens.
The 13th-ranked Presidents moved to 5-0, 3-0 in the conference, and Carnegie Mellon fell to 5-1, 3-1 in the PAC.
“We won this game with two aspects that aren’t our strengths since I’ve been at W&J,” said head coach Mike Sirianni. “We’ve been an offensive team that throws the ball. We’ve had good running backs but we’re primarily a passing team that doesn’t play real good defense. We won the game playing great defense.
“When (coach) John Luckhardt was here, it’s was defense and run the ball. Since I’ve been here, it’s offense and throw the ball. We won this game with defense.”
The most interesting play of the game came on a fourth-down play after CMU had scored to cut the deficit to seven with 2:49 left and recovered the onside kick. The snap to Tartans quarterback Alex Cline was low and it glanced off his hands for a fumble and W&J’s defense pounced. Sam Benger picked the fumble up and flipped it across his body to Cline.
The CMU quarterback unleashed a pass that Tommy Mansfield caught at the W&J 15-yard line.
But the officials ruled an illegal forward pass because Benger’s pitch to Cline already was a forward pass. Replays confirmed the call was correct.
“I can’t say I was in a great position to see the pitch,” said CMU head coach Rich Lackner. “I don’t know if it was a backward or forward pass. We made our share of mistakes, but we gave W&J a great game.”
W&J’s defense gave a glimpse of what was to come in this game by stopping Carnegie Mellon four times with a first-and-goal at the 7. Benger ran the final two times but managed only one yard from the two.
Middle linebacker Nick Murgo picked off a Cline pass two series later and returned it 51 yards for a touchdown that gave W&J a 14-0 lead.
“I saw the ball in the air and just broke on it,” said Murgo, who had a team-high 11 tacks and a quarterback sack. “I saw the end zone and didn’t stop.”
Carnegie Mellon used its defense to set up its first score when Kyle Brittan intercepted an Alex Rowse pass and returned it to the W&J 30. Cline hit John Prather over the middle for the first of two touchdowns, this one from 23 yards, to make it 14-6 at halftime.
The teams traded touchdowns in the third quarter and on successive drives. E.J. Thompson burst through the CMU defense for a 19-yard touchdown and a 20-6 lead. Cline found Prather on a similar post pattern from 17 yards to make it 20-13.
W&J tailback Justin Vickless pushed the lead to 27-13 when he capped a 9-play, 57-yard drive with a two-yard touchdown. The drive was set up when Benger fumbled and tackle Jeff Oxner recovered. It was Benger’s first fumble in 809 career carries. Vickless had career highs of 27 carries for 158 yards. None of his carries lost yards. He helped W&J amass 197 yards on 44 tries.
“I’ve been waiting for the day when we pound the ball,” said Vickless. “Our line was awesome. I thought we could run the ball but I didn’t think we could bully them like we did.”
Carnegie Mellon cut W&J’s lead to seven, when Cline went around right end for a 6-yard touchdown with 4:24.