Carnegie Mellon upsets W&J
PITTSBURGH – Willie Richter caught a 29-yard touchdown pass from J.D. Dayhuff with 5:11 remaining to break a tie and give Carnegie Mellon a 20-13 upset victory over No. 12-ranked Washington & Jefferson in a Presidents’ Athletic Conference game Saturday afternoon at Gesling Stadium.
The loss was the first of the season for W&J (1-1, 2-1), which erased a double-digit deficit by scoring 13 third-quarter points.
A 10-yard touchdown pass from Jacob Adams to Cameron O’Brien cut CMU’s lead to 13-6 midway through the third quarter. On the final play of the quarter, Adams and O’Brien hooked up on a 94-yard touchdown pass that tied the score. It was the longest pass play in W&J history, breaking the previous record of 91 yards, Chris Edwards to Mike Virgin, in 2003.
CMU (2-0, 3-0) drove 34 yards for its winning score. The Dayhuff touchdown pass to Richter came on third-and-5.
Adams completed 18 of 29 passes for 262 yards. He was intercepted twice. The Presidents were held to 69 yards net rushing.
CMU had 63 rushing yards, threw two interceptions and was penalized nine times.
The Tartans led 6-0 at halftime on field goals of 41 and 46 yards by Brandon Nguyen. Dayhuff threw a 17-yard TD pass to Ben Armbrester to increase the Tartans’ lead to 13-0 five minutes into the second half.
W&J’s Mitch DeZort had a team-high 11 tackles and 3 ½ sacks. Joey Koroly had both interceptions by the W&J defense.