Oct 3, 2015 4 min read

CRESTVIEW HILLS, Ky. – Broken down to its purest form, college football games are usually decided by this simple formula: The team that commits the most mistakes loses.

Exceptions? Sure. But not very often.

So, the reason why the football players at Thomas More broke into celebration from their postgame huddle after disposing of their Presidents’ Athletic Conference rival Washington & Jefferson Saturday was pretty simple.

The Saints produced four interceptions from W&J quarterback Pete Coughlin, a career high, and converted three of them into touchdowns that helped mold a 38-20 victory in front of 3,058 fans at BB&T Field.

The win moved Thomas More to 5-0, 3-0 in the PAC, and could increase its stature from a current No. 12 ranking in the d3football.com Top 25.

W&J (1-1, 3-1) was ranked No. 13 and might have seen its chance of earning a spot in the NCAA Division III playoffs fizzle with the loss.

“Everyone watched the Steelers game Thursday night. They didn’t take advantage of situations and we didn’t either,” said W&J head coach Mike Sirianni. “We had some opportunities and we didn’t do it. That’s a credit to (Thomas More). We don’t turn the ball over but it is what it is.”

Coughlin threw only six interceptions last year, but his four in this game raised his season total to 11 with just eight touchdown passes.

“I just made a couple bad decisions, we got a couple bad bounces and that’s what swayed the game their way,” said Coughlin, who tied Bobby Swallow’s school record of 58 pass attempts in a game. Swallow’s also came against Thomas More, in a 39-25 loss in 2008. Coughlin finished 34 of 58 for 360 yards and a first-quarter touchdown pass to Jesse Zubik that gave W&J a 10-7 lead.

“We had our chances. I missed Eric (Scott) on the last interception and he was wide open. I missed Jesse on a couple deep balls that just got hung up there. And I made some poor decisions.”

Thomas More turned Coughlin’s first interception into a 17-yard score in the second quarter when quarterback Jason Gebhardt hit Goose Cohorn to give the Saints a 14-10 lead they would not surrender.

Coughlin’s second interception, which came in the third quarter, was converted into a 23-yard field goal by Tommy Budke that stretched the Saints lead to 24-13.

The third was turned into a 14-yard touchdown run by CT Tarrant that gave the Saints a 31-20 lead on the first play of the fourth quarter.

Tarrant gashed the W&J defense for 193 yards on 37 carries.

The touchdown that hurt the most came with just one second to play in the first half and was preceded by two controversial penalties against the W&J defense. The first came on an incomplete pass over the middle to Cohorn, who was knocked to the ground hard by a defender. That drew a penalty for unnecessary roughness.

The second call came on the next play after Luke Merhaut intercepted a Gebhardt pass. W&J was called for roughing the passer. While the play was being sorted out, Gebhardt and one of the W&J assistant coaches got into an exchange along on the sideline and had to be separated.

Gebhardt hit Daylin Gardner with a 36-yard touchdown that gave Thomas More a 21-13 lead at halftime. W&J pulled to within one on the previous series when Ted Ford hit a 23-yard field goal.

“That was a huge score,” said Sirianni. “We aren’t making excuses about the officiating. … It was a big part of the game but what are you going to do. We just had to bounce back.”

W&J couldn’t. A Budke field goal made it 24-13 before Ryan Ruffing scored from the one on the next possession to make it 24-20. Tarrant made it 31-20 when he scored in the fourth quarter and that was the dagger to the heart of the Presidents.

“Turnovers make the difference to two evenly matched teams, no question,” said Thomas More coach Regis Scafe. “We stress that to the team. We didn’t make a lot of mistakes. Getting the touchdown before half was huge.”

Notes

Gebhardt suffered what was believed to be a concussion on a third quarter pass and was replaced by Brennan Kuntz. He led the Saints’ last two touchdown drives and rushed for 32 yards on four carries. … Zubik had seven catches for 115 yards and Daniel Lis 11 for 155. … Coughlin had 35 attempts by halftime for 201 yards.