Battle-tested Grove City is between W&J and PAC title
The Washington & Jefferson College football team is knocking on the door to win a third consecutive and 29th overall Presidents’ Athletic Conference championship.
Saturday night at Cameron Stadium, the Presidents would like to treat themselves with another.
But they won’t be tricked into thinking their rival, the Grove City Wolverines, are going to be satisfied with anything less than a victory in their own Halloween bag.
Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m.
“We know what we’re up against,” Presidents coach Mike Sirianni said. “We know they’re a good football team. We know the type of team that they are. Their two losses are against teams that have been ranked. They lost to Cortland, not by much, and they had Mount Union beat. We look at it like we’re the underdogs and that’s fine.
“I don’t control who we play, and I can’t control who they play, but, I mean, it looks like they’ve been tested a little bit more. We’ll take on that role.”
Grove City enters the game 4-0 in the PAC and 5-2 overall. W&J is atop the conference with a 5-0 record and is 6-1 overall. The Presidents have won six straight since losing to Utica in the season opener.
If W&J defeats the Wolverines, it will clinch the conference title and the automatic qualifier berth in the NCAA Division III playoffs.
If Grove City wins, it would have to defeat Case Western Reserve (3-1, 6-2) at home Nov. 7 and winless Thiel (Nov. 14) to clinch the championship. Case Western Reserve must defeat Thiel this Saturday, Grove City and Allegheny (Nov. 14) to have a chance at the title.
Wolverines coach Andrew DiDonato is used to the yearly battle with W&J with the conference championship and NCAA playoff implications in the balance.
Grove City is in the exact spot the Presidents were in last season, losing its first two games and having to run the table.
While W&J is a run-heavy team this season – a departure from the recent past – DiDonato says there are similarities.
“The RPO stuff they’ve done, you definitely see,” DiDonato said. “They just have a lot of continuity from what we’ve seen. We usually go back a couple years (watching video), and we looked at the last three to four years. They’re just obviously taking the run a lot more than some of the pass options in that, which has been great for them through this season.”
W&J has been buoyed by its offensive line, junior running back Andrew Sharp, freshman quarterback Braylon Wagner and an outstanding defensive effort the entire season.
Sharp has 964 rushing yards and has 14 touchdowns on the ground and two TD receptions.
He is fifth in the nation in rushing yards and tied for first in touchdowns.
Wagner, who became the starter in the fourth game, was stellar in a relief performance against Case Western.
The Redbank Valley graduate has rushed for 378 yards, averaging 8.8 yards per carry, and scored four TDs. Wagner has completed 54 of 76 passes (71%) for 835 yards and 12 TDs. He has not thrown an interception.
“This is definitely my hardest game that I’ve had to play,” Wagner said. “I’m excited for the opportunity. I have guys around me who I can really rely on and if I’m doing something wrong, they can pick me up. I can pick them up, if something’s going wrong with them. I’m just glad I get to go into football games with the group of guys we have. It makes my job a lot easier. The offensive line also makes it a lot easier on me, too.”
Noah Wheeler, the Wolverines’ exceptional junior cornerback, said it’s the secondary’s job to “eliminate and challenge the pass but we have a responsibility to help and eliminate and challenge the run as well. We’re all going to have to work together, pressure the quarterback.”
One huge factor in the game will be Grove City’s offense against the W&J defense. The Wolverines are 10th in the country in third-down efficiency (49 of 94, .521 percent) while the Presidents are No. 1 in third-down defense (12-84, .143 percent).
“We’ve been good on third down,” DiDonato said. “It’s a cliché, but the reality is we’ve been good on first and second down.
“We weren’t good against W&J last year (a 34-14 Presidents win). We were in too many third-and-longs and it got out of hand early. We’ve put ourselves in good third-down scenarios, but W&J’s defense is so great. When they know you must throw on third down, it’s going to be tough.”
The Presidents’ perspective defensively is that Grove City is their biggest challenge since Utica.
“We know Grove City is a good team,” said senior defensive end Nathaniel Kadosh-Harris. “They have athletes. Since Week 1, we’ve been playing great defense, and I think every week we just keep getting better. We’re just playing as a unit. Obviously, this is a big game. Grove City played well against two ranked teams. We’re excited to get a chance to go up against them.”
Hash marks
W&J is No. 1 in team passing efficiency defense (71.58) in the country having allowed only 78 completions in 174 attempts with 14 interceptions (fourth in the country) and 809 yards. Grove City is 12th in the same category. … W&J is third in both total and Red Zone defense nationally. . . The Wolverines are tied for 14th with 12 interceptions. … W&J leads the series, 46-14. The last time the Wolverines won in Washington was 1998.