WJPA Sports

Washington & Jefferson College was awarded a first-round bye and a home game in the second round of the upcoming NCAA Division III football championships. Winners of nine straight, W&J won the Presidents Athletic Conference title and will host NJAC champion Christopher Newport (9-1) Saturday, Nov. 28. Both teams have highly ranked defenses and points are expected to be hard to come by.

California University finished the PSAC season at 8-3, beating Bloomsburg Saturday afternoon. Sunday, the Vulcans were slotted into the NCAA Division II national tournament as the #5 seed in the Super Region I bracket.  CalU will travel to take on #4 Virginia Union (10-1), the CIAA champion.

Washington & Jefferson ran for 322 yards and scored on its first six possessions, beating Westminster, 44-14, Saturday afternoon, clinching the outright Presidents Athletic Conference championship. Andrew Sharp, the nation’s leader in touchdowns, rushing touchdowns and total points, added to those numbers with three first-half rushing touchdowns, part of his 22-for-249 rushing performance. The junior finished the regular season with 1,473 yards and 24 rushing touchdowns. W&J had already clinched the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tournament and the win virtually clinched a first-round bye (Nov. 210. Now, the Presidents wait to see if their NPI ranking is good enough to get a home game in the second round (Nov. 28). The entire tournament bracket will be released by the NCAA Sunday afternoon.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — Rocco Becht threw three touchdown passes and ran for another score and Penn State pulled away from Minnesota 42-14 on Saturday.  Carson Hansen ran for 126 yards and a touchdown, Ben Brahmer caught two touchdown passes and Penn State’s defense suffocated Minnesota early under a swirling mix of mist and flurries to become bowl eligible at Beaver Stadium.  The Nittany Lions got their third-straight win in league play thanks to a bruising ground attack that set the tone early and churned out 173 yards of its 229 rushing yards in the first half.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — Isaiah Marshall rushed for a career-high 164 yards and one touchdown, Khijohnn Cummings-Coleman and Chase Belcher each scored twice on the ground and Kansas beat West Virginia 37-14 on Saturday.  Kansas (4-6, 2-5 Big 12) had no trouble moving the ball in the first half against the Power Four’s worst defense. The Jayhawks still hold faint hopes of becoming bowl eligible with a pair of tough tests remaining.   Kansas leading rusher Dylan Edwards went to the locker room with an undisclosed injury on the first series of the game and did not return. West Virginia wide receiver Jaden Bray was tackled hard after a catch in the fourth quarter and had to be helped off the field.  Airline issue wasn’t a problem for the Jayhawks  The start of the game was moved up two hours after the nationwide airline ground stop. Kansas was unaffected because it had already arrived at its destination Friday. Leipold anticipated no issues getting back to Lawrence, Kansas, on Saturday night.  Rodriguez tells the West Virginia fan base he’s sorry.  The Mountaineers will have to wait at least another week to become bowl eligible under coach Rich Rodriguez, whose team went 4-8 a year ago in the first year of his second stint at his alma mater. He last took the Mountaineers to a bowl in the 2006 season.  “I apologize to our fan base, to every West Virginia fan out there,” Rodriguez said. “I mean, I didn’t see this coming. It’s just embarrassing.”

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Claude Giroux scored a goal and the Ottawa Senators beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-1 on Saturday night. Tim Stutzle scored his 11th of the season, and Michael Amadio and Thomas Chabot also had goals for the Senators, who have won five of their last seven games. Linus Ullmark made 16 saves for his 200th NHL win. Tommy Novak scored for the Penguins, who have lost six of their last eight games. Sergei Murashov stopped 30 shots.