CMU scores early and often, routs W&J
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PITTSBURGH – Halloween came early to Washington & Jefferson’s football team.
And Will Bouma, a 6-0, 195-pound sophomore, was the Nightmare on Elm Street for the Presidents.
Bouma set a Carnegie Mellon record with five touchdown runs to help the Tartans throttle W&J, 35-14, Saturday night in a Presidents’ Athletic Conference game at Geslig Stadium.
It as a howling poor performance for the Presidents, who gave up all five of Bouma’s touchdowns in the first half, three in the first quarter and two in the second.
“We looked like we were totally unprepared,” said W&J head coach Mike Siriani. “We couldn’t handle kickoffs. We couldn’t get signals. I’m embarrassed by the way we played the first half. The only person to blame is me.
“Our program is at the spot where we have to look in the mirror and see. We have to change something. We’re not happy where we’re at and I’m the person in charge. I have to figure out some answers.”
The loss sends W&J to 5-2 in the conference and 5-2 overall. Carnegie Mellon raised its record to 7-1 in the conference and 7-1 overall.
W&J’s defense was hammered for 363 yards in the first half, despite CMU starting quarterback Ben Mills not playing because of a lower body injury.
W&J quarterback Jacob Pugh completed 17 of 36 passes for 315 yards. But he was intercepted three times and sacked four times.
“For the rest of this year, moving forward, we have to figure out what are we not doing well,” Sirianni said. “I’m proud of the way we played in the second half. We didn’t give up. We had the ball twice, first and goal and couldn’t get in. They responded but just didn’t execute.”
Bouman’s rushing heroics would have impressed the Great Pumpkin. He scored his first touchdown on a one-yard plunge. His second came on a 55-yard run from the wildcat position that gave CMU a 12-0 lead.
His three other scores came on runs of one, four and 70.
“Only back in high school did I have a game like this,” said Bouman, who was recruited as a quarterback and moved to tailback when Tre Vasiliadis was injured. Vasiliadis rushed for 101 yards giving CMU two 100-yard rushers for the first time since 2011 when Patrick Blanks rushed for 145 yards and Jake Nardone went for 126 yards in a 35-14 victory over Kenyon.
“I think we started to build a little momentum so yeah they came easier,” Bouman said. “W&J is an extremely talented team. Last year was extremely close. Nothing feels better than beating those guys.”
W&J appeared ready to make a comeback, twice having first and goal but the strength off the CMU defense sent them away with no points.
“We were down our starting quarterback, so we brought the team in Sunday morning and told them we’re going to do some things differently,” said CMU head coach Ryan Larson. “We told Will we were going to put him in the wildcat, and he was up to the challenge. He knows how to manage and to look like a quarterback. But we can’t do anything without those five (offensive linemen). Some of the runs Will had, that’s the receivers blocking downfield. That was the message this week. Everybody has to step up a little bit.”
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Linebacker Tanner Volpatti and Justin Jones each had 12 tackles. … W&J had 12 penalties for 100 yards. CMU had eight for 56. …. W&J was 3-for-14 on third-down conversions. CMU was9-for-17.