W&J wraps up another PAC football title
On this chilly Halloween night, Grove City’s football team got a bag of rocks to take back to campus.
W&J running back Andrew Sharp scored five touchdowns as the Presidents wrapped up a berth in the NCAA Division III playoffs Saturday with a 42-14 victory over Grove City.
W&J (6-0, 7-1) has two games remaining in the regular season. Grove
City fell to 3-1 in the PAC and 5-3 overall.
“Everyone sees something good with this team,” said W&J head coach Mike Sirianni. “We play good defense, we can run the ball and we have an elusive quarterback. We’re going to play these last few games like we 0-0.”
Sharp caught a touchdown pass and ran for four more, finishing with 151 yards on 21 carries. He has 1,115 yards on the season and is tied with Bubba Mustain from the Merchant Marines with 18 touchdowns on the ground.
The last W&J runner to reach 1,000 yards in a season was Jordan West in 2018.
“The closest I ever got was four,” said Sharp. “I had four two other times.”
Quarterback Braylon Wagner threw the football for 133 yards and ran the ball for 155.
The first half held a lot of problems for both teams. W&J fumbled four times, lost one and gave up great field position to Grove city at the 12-yard line with the last. That led to a Sharp 11-yard touchdown that gave W&J a 21-14 lead at the half.
Those fumbles wrenched good field position for the Presidents. Sharp scored two touchdowns, a 5-yard pass to open the scoring in the game and the 11-yarder.
Meanwhile, Grove City used the legs of Darviae Gray for a five-yard touchdown and running back Braxtyn Brown, who scored from two yards out with 1:57 left in the first half, cutting W&J’s lead to 21-14.
Sharp ran for touchdowns of 1, 7 and 19 yards int he second half.
“W&J is our biggest challenge,” said Grove City head coach Andrew DiDonato. “We have to play great football to beat them.”
The Wolverines have not won in Washington since 1998.
Grove City quarterback Mike Hollomon passed for 185 yards and Nico Casciato ran for 94 yards on 19 carries.