Oct 30, 2012 5 min read

With the goal of winning a Presidents’ Athletic Conference title still within reach, the Washington & Jefferson football team has its eyes set on a season-ending clash with Waynesburg. But in order to get there, the Presidents have to be careful not to overlook any of the opponents left on their schedule. They passed one of those tests Saturday afternoon by not falling victim to a trap game when winless Saint Vincent visited Cameron Stadium. Behind a dominant performance on the ground and a solid day defensively, the Presidents ran all over the Bearcats, coming away with a 40-14 win on Homecoming, during which the 1992 Stagg Bowl team was honored before the game. Despite the score, things started slowly for the Presidents. After W&J went three-and-out on its opening drive, Saint Vincent’s Dan Wirkowski returned a punt 38 yards to set the Bearcats up at the W&J 23-yard line. But the Presidents’ defense held tough, and a sack by Jon Lowery on third down forced Saint Vincent to attempt a 46-yard field goal, one that Morgan Porter missed badly. After W&J quarterback Matt Bliss missed an open Alex Baroffio on a fourth-and-goal play from the 4-yard line, Saint Vincent quarterback Matt Deakins hit Ryan Crawford with an 81-yard pass to set the Bearcats up in great position once again. But John Hunter intercepted Deakins in the end zone on a third-and-goal play to once again put an end to a potential Bearcats scoring drive. Take away the 81-yard pass to Crawford, and the Presidents’ defense allowed only 78 first-half yards. “I thought we played very well defensively,” said W&J head coach Mike Sirianni. “We gave up a couple big plays, but for the most part we played great and tackled well.” But while the W&J defense played well, the story of the afternoon was the Presidents’ rushing attack. W&J racked up 546 yards of total offense, 359 of which came on the ground. They came into the game averaging 144.7 yards per game on the ground but surpassed that total in the first half alone. Running back Dion Wiegand set the pace, gaining 170 yards on 26 carries, and the quarterback combination of Bliss and backup Shane Smith combined for another 178 yards on 24 carries. “They played a lot of three-man fronts and have a pretty solid pass defense,” said Sirianni. “We felt that we coming in that we could have some success on the ground and I thought we did a good job running the ball. Shane is more of a running quarterback, and what he did today just gives us another weapon to use.” The Presidents broke open a scoreless game in the second quarter by scoring on three consecutive drives. After a 36-yard field goal by Eric Eberle, Bliss scored on runs of five and 15 yards to give W&J a 17-0 halftime lead. But none of that would have been possible without the work of Wiegand, who rushed for 116 first half yards on 19 carries. “We had a normal week of practice,” said Wiegand. “We really didn’t emphasize pass or run, but once we saw we could have success running the ball, we just wanted to keep pounding it. When you have a quarterback that can run as well, it gives us a dual-threat in the backfield and that’s tough to stop consistently.” Saint Vincent fumbled the opening kickoff of the second half, which the Presidents turned into an 8-yard touchdown pass from Bliss to Brandon Trefelner, but the Bearcats answered quickly with a 2-yard touchdown run by Crawford to pull within 24-7. The Bearcats made it a 10-point game when Dwayne Brown picked off Bliss and returned it 97 yards for a touchdown. Bliss injured his hip on the play when Nick Revis blew him up with a devastating block. “He will be fine,” said Sirianni. “We ended up scoring another touchdown and Shane was moving the team, so I didn’t feel the need to rush him back into the game with a week off next week.” Smith came in and threw a 32-yard touchdown to Dan Lucas and scored on a 1-yard run to make it a 38-14 game. W&J also added a safety on a blocked punt by Wiegand to make it 40-14. The W&J offense didn’t miss a beat after Bliss was injured as Smith accounted for 149 yards of offense (117 rushing) in a quarter and a half of football. “I didn’t expect the heavy workload, but the coaching staff prepares me every week like I’m going to play,” said Smith. “When your number is called, you have to be ready to go.” The Presidents have next week off before traveling to Geneva on Nov. 3. Sirianni believes there’s no chance his team will overlook Geneva with Waynesburg looming the final week of the regular season. “We have two weeks to get that message across,” said Sirianni. “It won’t be an issue. These guys know what’s at stake, and as long as we are playing for No. 5 (Tim McNerney), we know what we have to do. We can’t get to Waynesburg without getting through Geneva first, and we will treat it that way.”