W&J suffers painful loss to Grove City
GROVE CITY – Jake Pugh headed around left end, free from any tackler on the Grove City front line.
A touchdown would tie the score and keep Washington & Jefferson’s playoff hopes alive.
But Grove City defensive end Bryce Spolnik stuck out his paw, knocking the football free from Pugh at the Grove City 18-yard line, and Wolverine defensive end Jordan Karczewski fell on it to secure a 31-24 victory over Washington & Jefferson on a sunny Saturday afternoon in a Presidents’ Athletic Conference game at Robert Thorne Field.
The win, Grove City’s fifth in a row to start the season, was the first over W&J in 10 years. Grove City has not opened the season with a 5-0 record since 1926.
But on this day, everything changed. Grove City has the weaker part of the schedule remaining. W&J (4-1, 4-1) has five games remaining that include Carnegie Mellon and Case Western Reserve.
“Games don’t come down to one play,” said W&J head coach Mike Sirianni. “They made more plays than we did. We couldn’t stop the run. We didn’t have the ball in the first half. We had the ball for 25 plays in the first half.”
But it was Logan Pfeuffer, a graduate of Peters Township High School, who tore the heart out of W&J’s defense in the final quarter.
Pfeuffer hooked up with Scott Fraser twice for touchdowns in the fourth quarter, turning a 24-17 W&J lead into a seven-point defeat.
“It means a lot to us to beat them,” said Pfeuffer. “Ever since (head coach Andrew DiDonato) has been here, we haven’t been able to beat them.”
Pfeuffer completed 13 of 22 passes for 185 yards and three touchdowns, the final two to Grove City standout wide receiver Scott Fraser for fourth-quarter touchdowns.
“This win means a lot to this team,” Pfeuffer said. “We focus on being great each week. We weren’t capitalizing on the one-on-one matchup in the first half. Sometimes, I was missing the throw or they would make a good play. In the second half, we had faith we could get him the ball in the second half and we did.”
Fraser finished with eight catches for 99 yards. But that was not even close to the type of game wide receiver John Peduzzi had for W&J. Peduzzi caught 13 passes for 202 yards and three touchdowns. It was the second time Peduzzi had three touchdown catches in a game.
Peduzzi came into the game with 17 catches for 417 yards and eight touchdowns. His 18-yard touchdown reception with 24 seconds left in the third quarter gave W&J its last lead.
Peduzzi overshadowed a brilliant effort by teammate Jacob Macosko, who had 11 receptions for 168 yards.
“We can’t get over the hump,” said Sirianni. “They are a great program and we can’t do it. I don’t know what it is.”
Pugh had a strong game, completing 29 of 40 passes for 396 yards and three touchdowns. He threw one interception and fumbled the ball away once.
W&J defensive end Dawson Dietz was outstanding, making 12 tackles, sacking Pfeuffer once and having one tackle for loss.
But that wasn’t enough to wipe the smile off the face of DiDonato, a graduate of South Fayette High School.
“I’m maybe going to enjoy this win for a few hours,” said DiDonato. “I told the guys I’ll enjoy this win more after the season. We’re only halfway done with the season. We’ll just move on to Geneva next week.”
Grove City’s offense tore through the middle of W&J’s defense on the way to a 14-10 lead at halftime.
Grove City went eight plays over 45 yards for the first score, a 6-yard pass from Pfeuffer to Ryan Heckathorn.
The second drive covered 75 yards on 10 plays and ended when Clayton Parrish bulled over from the 2-yard line to give the Wolverines a 14-3.
The two drives ate up 10:34 of the middle two quarters. Grove City rolled up 135 rushing yards and held the Presidents to two yards on six carries.
Just as W&J was about to get blown away, the Presidents erupted. Using the hurry-up offense, the Presidents went 93 yards in three plays, scoring when John Perduzzi caught a 22-yard touchdown from Pugh.