Nov 13, 2022 3 min read

WAYNESBURG – Hurricane Nicole sure packed a wallop to Florida but it was nothing compared to the smackdown Washington & Jefferson put on rival Waynesburg on a drenched Saturday afternoon at Wiley Stadium.

It took just six plays for W&J to get its first score and when the Presidents were done, they had a 56-0 victory over the Yellow Jackets in this soggy Presidents’ Athletic Conference finale.

The win moved W&J to 6-2 in the conference and 8-2 overall. Waynesburg ended Cornelius Coleman’s first season as head coach with Waynesburg at 3-5 in the conference and 4-6 overall. W&J will probably accept an ECAC Bowl bid to keep its season alive.

“Last week, we ran the same play except our quarterback kept the ball,” said Washington & Jefferson head coach Mike Sirianni. “It was a version of a play last week when Jake threw the ball. So we figured they would take the passing plays away and we were going to hand the football off.”

Running backs Troy Volpatti and Raymond Holmes each reached the 100-yard rushing threshold. Volpatti ran for 139 yards on just 9 carries and Holmes had 104 on 16 carries.

“I personally think that when we got those yards off the first couple of plays, that we were going to take over the game,” said Volpatti, only a freshman. “There were definitely some challenges up there, some big guys. But our O-line opened some holes for me and gave me some places to go.”

W&J came out of the gates fast and on the ground, running the ball six times before quarterback Jacob Pugh cut his way into the end zone from 15 yards to make it 7-0.

The drive covered 65 yards in 1:15 and was a pretext of what was to come in this first half of football.

“They set the pace with the very first drive,” said Waynesburg head coach Cornelius Coleman. “They are an older group with some younger guys. … I think they set the pace with the hurry-up offense. We just have to compose ourselves and get better as we get older.”

Waynesburg was without senior starting quarterback Tyler Raines, who suffered a concussion two weeks ago. Freshman Thomas Burke started in his place and struggled. He completed six of 18 passes for 28 yards and had one intercepted.

“Tyler was here in the locker room when we all got here,” Coleman said. “He had the chance to sit down and learn the offensive playbook. Not having him for the last two weeks obviously was a blow to our offense.”

W&J’s defense was outstanding, holding Waynesburg to 259 yards of total offense, Keaton Hall had a team-high 10 tackles. Dawson Dietz and Justin Johns each had nine.

Before halftime ended, Volpatti broke free for a 59-yard touchdown that helped gain 115 yards on just six carries in the first half, an average of 19.2 yards a carry.

Raymond Holmes scored on a seven-yard run. He finished the first half with 88 yards on 12 carries, a 7.3-yard-per-carry average.

Pugh completed 12 of 15 passes for 166 yards and three touchdowns. He threw and 11-yard touchdown pass to Jacob Macosko, a 30-yarder to John Peduzzi and a three-yard scoring toss Zach Cernuto for the final touchdown of the first half and a 42-0 W&J lead.