Nov 17, 2018 4 min read

DANVILLE, KY – The early morning fog that engulfed Farris Stadium on Saturday morning lifted before kickoff of this important game.

But Washington & Jefferson College’s football team played as though the players were in a fog during a 54-13 loss to Centre in the first round of the NCAA Division III playoffs.

Centre, which resembles the style of football W&J employs, was just too effective on offense and played great on defense to end the Presidents’ season with a 9-2 record.

Centre (10-1) advances to the second round and will play at Mount Union next week.

“It’s my responsibility to get the team ready to play and I didn’t do a good job,” said W&J head coach Mike Sirianni. “We came down here and thought we could win a football game and we were wrong. I’ll take responsibility for that.”

The game wasn’t close and even when Centre lost starting quarterback Tanner Young to a left ankle injury late in the second quarter, the Colonels still dominated with John Walton, Young’s backup. Centre rolled up 593 yards against the Presidents’ overmatched defense. Young and Walton threw for a combined 352 yards.

The Colonels’ rushing attack was awesome, piling up 241 yards. Colin Burnam rambled for 163 yards on 20 carries and scored three touchdowns. His most impressive run came just three minutes into the second half when he broke four tackles on a 39-yard touchdown that pushed Centre lead to 33-13 and drained the life out of W&J’s defense. Burnam would score on a five-yard run in the fourth quarter to make it 47-13.

“That (third-quarter touchdown run) took the wind out of our sails,” said Sirianni. “Our demeanor went down. We lost our composure. The coaches lost their composure. We’re yelling at people and I shouldn’t do that. … We thought we were still in the game at halftime, then boom, it looked like (Burnam) broke 16 tackles. Right there, our heads dropped. It’s my responsibility to get them up and I didn’t do it.”

Meanwhile, W&J’s offense was crippled by Centre’s press man-to-man coverage. Andrew Wolf, who had eight games this season with at least 100 yards receiving, caught just one pass for two yards. Quarterback Jacob Adams, who had a 64 percent completion rate, went just 13-for-34 for 130 yards and was sacked five times.

“They put (Cal Lewellyn) on (Wolf) and he’s a good player,” said Adams. “I don’t think we were the team we showed today. We just flat out got beat.”

Young and Walton had similar numbers with both throwing two touchdowns.

“I just wanted to keep doing what (Young) was doing,” Walton said. “The coaches calmed me down. I had some nerves.”

Centre stunned W&J at the outset, scoring on the first five possessions to take a 27-13 lead at halftime.

But the loss of Young put a pale over the first half.

“John knows our offense and we were going to run it,” said Centre head coach Andy Frye. “He did a great job.”

Young found Estep from 31 yards to cap the first drive for Centre. Then, he drove the Colonels to W&J’s 10, where Ben Logsdon kicked a 25-yard field goal.

Colin Burnam finished a seven-play, 80-yard drive with a one-yard plunge, making it 17-0 3:54 left in the first quarter.

“We knew we had to come out early and hit them in the mouth,” said Burnam. “The holes opened up, we called the right plays and we put (the football) where it had to go.”

W&J finally responded, thanks to the running of Thompson, who finished a 16-play, 65-yard drive with a one-yard run 1:04 into the second quarter.

Young hooked up with Estep again, this time from 33 yards, and Centre’s lead was 24-7.

Walton got Centre in field-goal range and Logsdon hit a 41-yarder to make it 27-7.

W&J cut the lead to 14 when Josh Burns caught a short crossing pattern and turned it into a 30-yard touchdown. The extra-point kick was blocked.

Notes

The schools met only twice before, both in the mid-1950s and both victories by Centre with a combined score of 101-21. … Centre has the more veteran team with 31 seniors. … W&J was not penalized. … Centre punted once and scored on all but three possessions.