WAYNESBURG, Pa. -- W&J's hopes at a perfect 10-0 season were dashed with a 31-28 overtime loss at Waynesburg in the 42nd edition of the Presidents' Athletic Conference Backyard Brawl.
With the loss, the No. 11/14 Washington & Jefferson football team heads into next weekend's NCAA Division III playoffs with a 9-1 overall record and 7-1 showing in the PAC. Opponents and sites will be released tomorrow night, Sunday, Nov. 16, at 6 p.m. on NCAA.com. The game will be on Saturday, Nov. 22 at 12 p.m. Waynesburg improves to 8-2 on the year and 6-2 in the league.
Trailing 28-21 with 2:01 left in regulation, W&J took over at its own five-yard line and quarterback Pete Coughlin engineered an 11-play, 95-yard drive in 1:19 to get the Presidents into the end zone. He hit Max Creighan along the left side of the end zone from 28 yards out to bring the score to 28-21, then Blake Davis tacked on the extra point to tie the score at 28-28 with less than 40 seconds left in regulation.
W&J forced Waynesburg to punt and took a knee with five seconds left to head into overtime.
The Yellow Jackets won the overtime coin toss and chose to play defense. The first play of the OT period was a 10-yard, first-down rush by Ryan Ruffing, but W&J stalled at that point, eventually settling for a 31-yard Davis field-goal try that was blocked by Waynesburg's Kyle Richey.
Waynesburg went for the end zone on its first two plays of overtime and then gained seven yards on third down, forcing a 34-yard FG attempt by Scott Lewis, which he converted to give the hosts their first win in the Backyard Brawl since 2003.
The two teams traded the first four scores of the game, with Carter Hill throwing touchdown passes to Andrew English and Bernie Thompson in the first quarter to sandwich a five-yard TD catch by Ruffing, 14-7. Ruffing put up the only points of the second quarter when he went in from three yards out to cap an 11-play, 83-yard drive midway through the period as the game went into halftime tied, 14-14.
In the third quarter, Ryan Torrance intercepted a Hill pass, one of three picks on the day for the Presidents, and raced 41 yards to the end zone to give W&J a 21-14 advantage.
Hill threw a pair of touchdown strikes early in the first five minutes of the fourth quarter to put the hosts ahead, 28-21, with 10:20 to play.
W&J matched a season high with 98 plays, accumulating 501 yards of total offense. Ruffing finished with 151 yards on 36 carries, pushing him over the 1,500-yard mark for the season. He is just the third President ever to top 1,500 yards in a season. He scored two total touchdowns to push his season total to 28.
Coughlin completed 29-of-44 passes for 293 yards and two scores with no interceptions, but he was sacked three times. Creighan caught 10 of the passes for 96 yards and the game-tying score near the end of regulation, while Daniel Lis made nine receptions for 95 yards.
Torrance led the defense with 10 tackles (eight solo) and his pick-six. He also added a tackle for loss, one of five on the day for W&J. Tim Blair, Alec Schram and Jared Pratt each made seven tackles, with Schram posting three pass break-ups and Pratt a TFL and interception. Pratt's seven tackles put him at 103 on the season, making him the third President in the last 10 years to top 100 stops. Both of Ryan Snedeker's tackles were for loss, including a sack.