Oct 13, 2025 2 min read

By Joe Tuscano

For the Observer-Reporter

newsroom@observer-reporter.com

A few weeks ago, the football team at Washington & Jefferson was searching for answers.

The Presidents had started the season with two straight losses and morale was low.

Fast forward to yesterday, W&J had just put the finishing touches on a 24-7 victory over Westminster in a key Presidents’ Athletic Conference game on a brilliant Saturday afternoon at Cameron Stadium.

So what’s changed?

“The bye week really helped us,” said W&J head coach Mike Sirianni. “We needed to reset.”

The bye week followed two poor performance to start the season: a 49-31 blowout loss to Utica and a 38-31 loss at Hampden-Sydney.

“Our goal is to go 1-0 each week,” Sirianni said. “Westminster is a good team. We just needed refreshed and the bye did that for us. We’re confident. Confidence comes from hard work.”

Since the loss to Hampden-Sydney, W&J’s defense has not allowed more than 14 points in a game. Brock Sherman led the Presidents with 11 tackles against Westminster.

Defensive back Dante DeRubbo made his fifth interception in the past five games.

On offense, quarterback Kellen Stahl passed for 321 yards and a touchdown.

“Definitely, the bye week made the difference,” said Stahl. “Beating Grove City was key. Our offense had two turnovers. Our defense played great. All that matters is we won.”

Stahl was responsible for both touchdowns in the first half for W&J (3-0, 3-2), which opened a 17-0 lead.

Stahl hit John Perduzzi with a 13-yard touchdown pass to give the Presidents a 7-0 lead in the first quarter.

Stahl’s 60-yard pass to Kobe DeRosa set up a 23-yard field goal by Deven Wyandt that gave W&J a 10-0 lead in the second quarter.

The Presidents pressed the lead to 17-0 when Stahl went over from the 1-yard line. A 14-yard completion from the 15 to Jacob Macosko set up the run.

“This was a tough one,” said Westminster head coach Scott Benzel. “We couldn’t get anything going. We didn’t do anything on offense.”

The Titans fell to 2-1 in the PAC and 3-2 overall.