PAC Backyard Brawl Game Notes -- W&J at Waynesburg

Washington & Jefferson College (7-2, 5-1 PAC) at Waynesburg University (6-3, 4-2 PAC)

NCAA Division III Football

Waynesburg, Pa. – John F. Wiley Stadium (4,000)

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Time:  1:30 pm

Site:  John F. Wiley Stadium (4,000)

Series:  W&J leads 34-3

Series Streak: +6 W&J

Radio: WJPA (1450-AM)

Broadcasters: Bob Gregg and Mark Uriah

Internet Audio: http://www.wjpa.com/sports.htm

Live Stats: http://www.sidearmstats.com/waynesburg/football/index.htm

Last Meeting: W&J 35, WAY 12 -- 11/14/2009

First Meeting: WAY 22, W&J 18 -- 11/18/1897

Last W&J Win: W&J 35, WAY 12 -- 11/14/2009

Last WAY Win: WAY 27, W&J 17 -- 10/25/2003

Last W&J Win at WAY: W&J 42, WAY 9 -- 11/15/2008 

Last WAY Win at WAY: WAY 27, W&J 17 -- 10/25/2003

THE SERIES:  Washington & Jefferson and Waynesburg renew their local rivalry, the PAC Backyard Brawl, on Saturday for the 38th time.  The Presidents lead the series by a 34-3 margin and have claimed 18 of the 19 meetings since the Yellow Jackets joined the PAC in 1990.  The Yellow Jackets last beat W&J in 2003, a 27-17 victory at Wiley Stadium.  In the six games since that loss, Washington & Jefferson's average margin of victory is 16.7 points

THE HEAD COACHES: Mike Sirianni (Mount Union '94) is in his eighth season as the head coach at Washington & Jefferson with a 76-14 (.844) overall record.  The three-time PAC Coach of the Year and 2004 South Region Coach of the Year is second among all active NCAA head coaches in winning percentage (minimum five years of experience).  Rick Shepas (Youngstown State '87) is in his sixth season as the Yellow Jackets' head coach with a 34-26 (.567) record.

W&J vs. THE PAC: W&J boasts a 249-81-4 (.751) all-time record against current members of the Presidents' Athletic Conference.  The Presidents have won 62 of their last 67 conference contests. 

Bethany (67-20)                                

Geneva (37-19-2)      

Grove City (34-12)    

Saint Vincent (4-0)               

Thiel (40-22-2)                       

Thomas More (3-3)   

Waynesburg (34-3)

Westminster (30-2)

THE LAST MEETING {W&J 35, WAY 12, 11/14/09, Washington, Pa.}:  W&J quarterback Gino Rometo threw for 310 yards and three touchdowns as W&J defeated Waynesburg 35-12 at Cameron Stadium. Jordan Roycroft caught six passes, including a pair of touchdown passes, on the way to 112 yards receiving.  Defensive end Jacob Bloomhuff recorded three sacks for a loss of 22 yards.  Waynesburg opened the scoring at the 4:47 mark of the first quarter when Brad Dawson, brother of former W&J record-setting quarterback Brian Dawson, flipped a six-yard touchdown pass to Zach Fatigante. Jon Storck's extra-point attempt missed wide left and WU led 6-0.  W&J only needed five plays to claim its first lead.  Roycroft caught two long passes from Rometo to set up Rometo's 11-yard scoring toss to Craig Besong. The Yellow Jackets strung together a 10-play, 64-yard drive in the second quarter to claim a 9-7 advantage. Dawson completed five passes on the possession which ended on Storck's 22-yard field goal.  Washington & Jefferson once again responded with a touchdown following a 73-yard drive.  Rometo fired a 16-yard touchdown pass to Roycroft with 4:12 left in the first half for a 14-9 lead.  W&J took the five-point cushion into halftime after sophomore cornerback Josh Buckley's late interception. W&J widened its lead to 21-9 on the first drive of the second half.  Rometo connected with Besong for a pair of 18-yard gains and Terrence McAllister rushed four yards for the touchdown.  Nathan Harmotto intercepted a Dawson pass at the 5:04 mark of the third quarter which led to a 1-yard touchdown run by running back Jacob McBride. Storck brought Waynesburg back to within two scores on a 35-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter; however, W&J answered a Waynesburg score with a touchdown of its own for the third time in the game. Rometo lofted a 30-yard touchdown pass to Roycroft for the final points with 9:53 left.  W&J rolled up 489 yards of total offense and 26 first downs, while Waynesburg (329 yards, 16 first downs) became the first team all season to gain more than 300 yards on the W&J defense.  W&J also had the advantage in time of possession (36:01-23:59)  Matthew Gal collected a team-high eight tackles and added two pass breakups.  Dawson became Waynesburg's single-season passing yards leader by completing 18-of-35 passes for 237 yards. He was intercepted three times. Troy Cree led the defense with a game-high 14 tackles and one sack.

SCOUTING WAYNESBURG:  The Yellow Jackets had their four-game win streak snapped last Saturday by PAC Champion Thomas More 14-10 at Wiley Stadium.  Waynesburg trailed for a majority of the game, but grabbed a 10-7 lead with 6:44 remaining on freshman running back Dominic Moore's 1-yard touchdown run.  The Saints missed a tying field goal attempt with just under four minutes remaining, but WU was forced to punt after three plays and an 80-yard touchdown drive in less than two minutes doomed the Yellow Jackets.  Senior quarterback Brad Dawson completed 31-of-54 passes for 215 yards, but was picked off three times.  The Yellow Jackets were unable to develop a running game as freshman Bertrand Ngampa led the ground gainers with 28 yards on 10 attempts.  Waynesburg owns the league's second-ranked offense (32.4 ppg, 358.4 ypg); however, has allowed opponents to gain an average of 358.0 yards per game (8th in PAC).  Dawson's leads the conference's top-ranked passing offense with 1,812 yards and 11 touchdowns.  Ngampa averages 51.8 yards per contest and has scored seven touchdowns, while sophomore Adam Moses is Dawson's top receiving target with 32 catches for 386 yards and six touchdowns.  Defensively, sophomore free safety Bryan Gary has 62 tackles, 11 pass breakups and three interceptions.  He has earned PAC defensive and special teams player of the week awards this season.  

STREAK ALIVE:  Senior wide receiver Jordan Roycroft upped his consecutive game reception streak to 13 after his second-straight, eight-catch performance last week.  All eight of the catches at Thiel came in the first half.  In 28 career games, Roycroft has produced 92 receptions for 1,043 yards and 13 touchdowns. 

CHALK IT UP:  The Presidents have run their consecutive winning season streak to 27 years which ranks as the 10th-longest streak in NCAA Division III history and 16th among all divisions.  Only Linfield (55 years), Ithaca (39) and Mount Union (32) own longer active streaks among Division III schools.

BETTER EARLY:  Nearly 75 percent (201-of-271) of Washington & Jefferson's scoring production has come during the first half of games.  The Presidents average 25.7 points in the first half of their seven wins.  On the flip side, W&J has scored only averaged 10.5 points in the first 30 minutes of its two losses. 

ACADEMIC STANDOUTS:  W&J had a conference-high four players selected to the 2010 ESPN/College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-District II College Division football team.  The four honorees are the most for the W&J football program since six Presidents were chosen in 2005.  The quartet was headlined by junior defensive end Frank Gigler's first-team selection.  He advanced to the national Academic All-America ballot.  Three seniors earned second-team recognition: quarterback Gino Rometo, wide receiver Jordan Roycroft and cornerback Michael Trunzo. 

400 CLUB:  Since Mike Sirianni took over as head coach in 2003, W&J owns a perfect 50-0 record when amassing 400 or more yards of total offense.  The last time W&J had more than 400 yards and lost was at Hanover (Ind.) on Nov. 2, 2002.  The Presidents dropped a 35-14 decision to the Panthers despite holding a 503-364 edge in total yards. 

SELECT COMPANY:  Senior free safety Craig Sedunov, the fourth-leading tackler in Washington & Jefferson history, enters Saturday's game one tackle shy of 300 for his career.  He is also 19 stops shy from tying David Gitlitz '08 and Jim Meyer '87 for second place on the all-time list.  Eric Field '04 owns the W&J record with 348 stops.  Sedunov has notched at least one tackle in all 44 career games with the Presidents.  He has started every game of his career.

TIM TIME:  Sophomore running back Tim McNerney has rushed the ball 138 times for 583 yards and nine touchdowns in his last five games.  The last President to rush that many times over a five-game stretch was Ryan Mendel '07 during the middle of the 2006 season.  Mendel also carried 138 times during his five-game stretch (all 100-yard efforts) for 677 yards and 13 touchdowns. 

SACK SPECIALISTS:  Junior Frank Gigler and sophomore defensive end Andy McGill's are tied atop the Presidents' Athletic Conference with nine total sacks.  Since 2000, only two Presidents have finished a season with as many sacks than either player.  All-American Jacob Bloomhuff '10 had 14.5 sacks last season, while Andre Barnabei '03 recorded nine during the 2000 season.  Gigler has notched at least one sack in six of the last seven games, while McGill has produced three games with more than one sack.  Thomas More's Tyler Owens and Jay Volker are tied with the W&J duo atop the league's sack leaders.

PAC LEADERS:  Senior quarterback Gino Rometo leads the PAC with a 148.7 pass efficiency rating.  His top receiving target, senior Jordan Roycroft, averages a league-high 6.3 receptions per game.  Roycroft's 63.9 yards per game are second to Geneva's Cory O'Patchen.  Sophomore Ben Hoffer has a PAC-high 26.8 yard kickoff return average, but he is expected to miss the Waynesburg game due to an injury suffered Saturday at Thiel.  Senior punter Joe Kelly continues to lead the conference in punting (40.4 ypp) and also ranks 15th in NCAA Division III.  McGill and Gigler are tied for the sack lead, while defensive backs senior Craig Sedunov and juniors Matthew Gal and Pat Fening are tied with six other PAC players with two forced fumbles.

THE GREAT UNKNOWN:  W&J still holds a slim hope of making the NCAA Division III playoffs for a seventh consecutive year.  Only Mount Union and Mary Hardin-Baylor have matched W&J's streak of six-straight NCAA playoff appearances.  If the Presidents do not earn one of six NCAA "Pool C" bids, W&J will most likely earn a spot in one of three ECAC South bowl games.  Those selections will be announced Monday afternoon.  Waynesburg also remains in the mix for a postseason berth in an ECAC bowl game.  W&J defeated Wilkes in the 2003 ECAC South Bowl by a 41-19 margin in Edwardsville, Pa. 

Washington & Jefferson's Record When it: 

Wins coin toss ...................... 3-2

Receives the opening kick  . 4-0

Scores first............................. 5-0

Leads after one quarter......... 6-0

Leads at halftime.................... 7-1

Leads after three quarters..... 6-1

Scores between 0-9 points... 0-1

Scores between 10-19 points 0-0

Scores between 20-29 points 3-1

Scores 30+ points.................. 4-0

Allows opponent 0-9 points. 2-0

Allows opponent 10-19 points 3-0

Allows opponent 20-29 points 2-2

Allows opponent 30+ points 0-0

Leads in time of possession 3-1

Rushes for 200+ yards.......... 2-0

Allows 200+ yards rushing... 1-1

Passes for 200+ yards........... 5-1

Allows 200+ yards passing... 2-1

Gains 400+ total yards.......... 5-0

Allows 400+ total yards......... 0-1

Is penalized 50+ yards.......... 4-1