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W&J playoff hopes dealt death blow by CMU

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Boy, talk about turning the tables.

Last week, Washington & Jefferson used a trick play, a version of the halfback option pass, to defeat Westminster.

On Saturday, a similar play gave Carnegie Mellon a huge 33-yard gain with 5:30 to play and a first down that the Tartans used to beat W&J 12-7 at Cameron Stadium.

The loss probably eliminates the Presidents from any postseason considerations, even though they held the Tartans offense in check for most of the game.

“When you give up 12 points, you should win,” said W&J head coach Mike Sirianni. “We knew we were going to play two great defense, this one and Westminster’s.”

Last week, W&J used a trick play that saw quarterback Jacob Pugh toss a backwards pass or lateral to John Peduzzi, who threw a touchdown pass to Johnny O’Rourke to secure the 17-14 win over the Titans.

On Saturday, with a third-and-eight play, Ben Mills handed the ball off to Willem Bouma, who played quarterback at Phillipsburg, N.J. High School, and he found Ben Condemi uncovered for a 33-yard gain and a key first down that let CMU run down the clock.

“With a guy like Bill, we knew we could do itiif we had the opportunity,” said Carnegie Mellon head coach Ryan Larson. “Watching the game, we felt there was an opportunity. It was a great catch by Ben and the line blocked it well.”

The throw came after Logan Young returned a Colton Jones interception return from 41 yards midway through the fourth quarter for CMU’s only TD.

The victory was the 14th straight for CMU and moved it to 5-0 in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference and 7-0 overall. The previous best CMU win streak was 13 spanning over the 1989-90 seasons. W&J fell to 3-2 in the PAC and 5-2 overall.

“Our defense played well,” said Sirianni. “We just have to finish the season and let the chips fall where they may. We’ll play as hard as we can and not turn on each other.”

W&J’s defense held Carnegie Mellon to three first downs, four yards rushing on 13 attempts, 29 passing yards and 33 total yards.

The Presidents scored on a good play with 3:00 left in the half. Quarterback Jacob Pugh took the snap in the wildcat formation and stepped toward the line as if to run the football. Right before he was hit, Pugh flipped a pass to Keaton Hall over the top of the defensive line. Hall outran the secondary to the end zone.

That gave W&J a 7-0 lead at halftime.

CMU got two field goals from Cole Hanna, one from 33 yards in the third quarter and one from 29 yards in the fourth quarter.

“We can’t point fingers and it’s easy to do,” said Sirianni. “You give up six points and you lose so it’s easy to point fingers at the defense. I’ve got to watch film and see if the second half was they played harder than we did or that we just didn’t execute. We got the long field and eventually it caught up to us.”

Young’s return was the fourth return for a TD by Carnegie Mellon’s defense.

The quarterback duo of Jacob Pugh and Colton Jones went a combined 28-51-2 and 238 yards. Again, W&J couldn’t run the ball, gaining 42 yards on 21 tries.

W&J will have two weeks to lick its wounds before a game with Thiel Oct. 29.

Hash marks: W&J honored former head coach John Luckhardt before the game. Luckhaardt is one of 21 individuals set to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in December. Luckhardt coached the Presidents from 1982-98 and left as the winningest coach in school history at 137-37-0. Luckhardt led the Presidents to two NCAA Division III championship games, 13 PAC titles, and 11 appearance in the NCAA playoffs. Luckhardt then went on to a distinguished career at Californiia University.

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