Oct 26, 2025 3 min read

By Joe Tuscano

For the Observer-Reporter

newsroom@observer-reporter.com

The defense for Washington & Jefferson has improved each week. From the season opener, when the defense allowed 49 points in a loss to Utica, to Saturday’s first shutout of the season against Waynesburg, one can see the improvement week to week.

Yesterday, the Presidents presented their best performance of the year with a 56-0 whipping of rivals Waynesburg in a Presidents’ Athletic Conference encounter. It was the 12th straight win for W&J in the series.

Quarterback Kellan Stahl completed 27 of 28 pass attempts for 408 yards and five touchdowns. He set an NCAA Division III record for completion percentage (96.4). Stahl finished with a quarterback rating of 277.7. Nick Semptimphelter of John Carroll held the record of 96.2. The minimum is 20 pass attempts.

“We’re in playoff mode,” said W&J head coach Mike Sirianni after W&J went 5-2 overall and 5-0 in the PAC. “We played five straight playoff games. We’re in playoff mode for us, ever since Game 3. We have two very good teams yet to play and we know how good Geneva is and we know how good Case is. It could turn out all right but we still have some games to play.”

In the first two games of the season, W&J hemorrhaged a combined 87 points in losses to Utica and Hampden Sydney. Since then, the W&J defense has allowed 34 combined points in five straight victories.

“I think that bye week helped us mentally reset, especially the defense,” said W&J inside linebacker Brock Sherman, who had a team-best 10 tackles, two tackles for losses and one quarterback sack yesterday. “We gave up a lot of points, and we wanted to get back to what we do best. Absolutely, you question yourself. Are we doing the right things? Are we giving enough? The bye week set the tone of where we need to be to win games.”

Waynesburg fell to 2-4 in the PAC and 2-6 overall.

“The only way we can go is up, right?” said Waynesburg head coach Cornelius Coleman. “We have to go back to the drawing board. Like I told our young men, there is a learning lesson in today. You have to find out the little things that make you enjoy the game, do all the things that make you better as a ballclub.”

W&J put the game away with a 35-point first half.

Stahl was magnificent, completing 21 of 22 pass attempts for 305 yards and four touchdowns.

The first one went for 19 yards to John Peduzzi, who had six receptions for 85 yards.

Kobe DeRosa scored next on a four-yard run to make it 14-0.

Stahl then hit Joey Sabada twice and Jacob Macosko for touchdowns to make it 35-0.

The Presidents’ defense was unbreakable, allowing just 46 total yards on 25 snaps. Waynesburg went 0-for-7 on third-down conversions.