Oct 14, 2017 4 min read

BETHANY, W.Va. – While these games have not always been close on the scoreboard, the series between Bethany and Washington & Jefferson has always been high spirited.

It was no different on a sparkling Saturday afternoon, when the two teams were neck-and-neck after one half.

But a second-half surge, sparked by a defense that produced four turnovers and a passing game that added four second-half touchdowns, kept W&J undefeated and Bethany winless after a 49-14 victory in a Presidents’ Athletic Conference game.

The Presidents, ranked 15th, moved to 6-0, 4-0 in the conference. The Bison fell to 0-7, 0-5 in the conference.

The game had its share of pushes and shoves, but the most significant came in the second quarter when Bethany’s Chas Blango broke free from his defensive end position and hit W&J quarterback Alex Rowse with a shot to the head. Blango was assessed a personal foul for targeting and ejected from the game.

After reviewing replays of the hit at halftime, the officials confirmed the targeting call and ejection.

“We are always their Super Bowl, which is fine,” said W&J head coach Mike Sirianni. “We always bring out the best in them and we did again. Early in the game, they came to play and we didn’t.”

Senior Jesse Zubik broke the game open just under five minutes before halftime, when he caught a 52-yard touchdown pass down the left sideline that had Bison defenders giving up on the play after Zubik was pushed out of bounds, came back in, and made a one-handed catch. That gave the Presidents a 21-14 halftime lead and started a streak of 35 consecutive points.

If Zubik had run out of bounds on his own and came back in to catch the ball it would have been a penalty.

“I didn’t think it was going to count, because I didn’t know the rule,” said Zubik. “I was waiting for the flag. I didn’t see it on the field. That’s why I was confused. The official was running next to me while I went into the end zone. He said it was going to count.”

Zubik finished with seven catches for 111 yards. In the first quarter, he surpassed 4,000 career yards, one of only 22 players to accomplish the feat in NCAA Division III football and only the second in PAC history.

“I saw it in a little write-up, but I wasn’t thinking about that at all,” said Zubik. “Until they announced it, I wasn’t thinking about how close I was.”

Junior slot receiver Brandon Barnes caught W&J’s first two touchdowns, snagging a three-yard pass with 11:30 to play in the first quarter and a four-yarder nearly 10 minutes later. It was the first time in his college career that Barnes had two pass receptions for touchdowns in a game.

“We knew their defense would press the outside receivers and knew they played off the slot receivers a little bit,” said Barnes. “We knew we had to step up and we did.”

Barnes said the Presidents weren’t focused early on.

“The coaches got on us at halftime,” he said, “We made adjustments and did what we had to do.”

W&J’s defense had another strong effort, shutting out the Bison in the second half. O’Shea Anderson, Brad Villa, Zach Taylor and Jeffrey Oxner each had an interception. They held Bethany quarterback Carlin Bason to 120 passing yards.

Meanwhile, Rowse had a strong second half and finished the day completing 22 of his 36 passes for 300 yards.

Jordan West, a Washington High School graduate, returned from a bruised knee that kept him out a month. He carried six times for 17 yards. E.J. Thompson led W&J with 65 yards on 14 carries.