Oct 20, 2018 4 min read

NEW WILMINGTON – This time, they couldn’t overcome the mistakes.

This time, the penalties were devastating.

This time, the Washington & Jefferson College football team came up short on the scoreboard.

Westminster made sure of that with a suffocating defense, a grind-them-up running game and some fortunate plays.

The result was a 27-20 victory for the Titans over No. 7 W&J in a Presidents’ Athletic Conference game on a soggy Saturday afternoon.

W&J falls to 7-1, 6-1 in the conference, and is tied with Case Western Reserve for first place in the PAC. Westminster moved to 5-3, 5-2 in the conference.

The Presidents will have a bye next week, so this loss gets to simmer for a while. It snapped a 20-game regular-season winning streak.

“They played better than us in every aspect of the game. They deserved to win,” said W&J head coach Mike Sirianni. “We played tentative. We played scared. Our kicking game killed us again.”

The wheels fell off early after W&J’s first possession to start the game. On fourth down, the snap from Cameron O’Brien sailed over punter Jacob Sarver’s head. Sarver chased after the football and fell on it at the three-yard line for a loss of 34 yards.

Two plays later, Isiah Canton scored one of his two touchdowns on the day, giving Westminster a 7-0 lead.

The Titans would never trail in the game.

“The start was important,” said Westminster head coach Scott Benzel. “We recognized they played a physical game the week before against Geneva and we felt they were a little wore out up front. Our goal was to not give up big plays and run the ball.”

Tyler Greene rushed for 85 yards and Keano Grice had 49 yards for the Titans.

It was another barn-on-fire day for the Presidents’ special teams unit. W&J had two more poor snaps on punts, gave up a 59-yard kickoff return and missed an extra point.

Normally, W&J’s offense has been able to overcome these problems by outscoring opponents. But the Presidents didn’t cross the 50-yard line for the first time until 1:56 remained in the first half.

Quarterback Jake Adams had his worst game as a starter, completing 20 of 33 pass attempts for only 106 yards. He tossed two interceptions.

“We hurt ourselves, for sure,” said Adams. “The defense played well. The offense didn’t show up.”

W&J’s offense finished the first half with minus-15 yards rushing and only 149 total yards.

“We were terrible in the first half,” said Sirianni. “We played a little better in the third quarter. When we’re bad on first-and-10, we’re in trouble. And we were bad on first-and-10.”

Still, with all the mistakes and problems moving the ball, the score did not get out of hand.

W&J tied the game, 7-7, when Zac Quattrone stepped in front of an Augustus Necastro pass and returned it 71 yards for a touchdown with 5:08 remaining in the first quarter.

But Westminster added two quick scores to make is 20-7 at halftime. Canton scored on another two-yard run and Anthony Livotti caught a tipped pass in the end zone with just under five minutes before intermission.

W&J rallied in the second half behind the running of E.J. Thompson, who scored on a 13-yard run to make it 20-13. He finished with 48 yards on 11 carries.

The Presidents tied the game with 55 seconds remaining in the third quarter when Adams threw his best pass of the day, a seven-yard strike to wide receiver Andrew Wolf in the far corner of the end zone.

Westminster squashed any hopes W&J had of winning the game when Grice capped an 11-play, 66-yard drive with a three-yard touchdown run.

W&J had two more possessions but one ended on an Adams’ interception and the other on a punt from the Presidents’ 25 with 2:45 to play.

Westminster ran out the clock, fittingly getting a first down on a fourth-and-one at W&J’s 47 because of a penalty with just over a minute to play.

“We’ve had some big games over the past few years against W&J,” said Benzel. “It was an important win. It tells everyone we’re here and we’re going to fight and compete.”