WASHINGTON, Pa. – Junior quarterback Jake Pugh threw three touchdown passes and ran for another score, junior defensive back Zachai Simmons blocked a punt and added a second-half interception as Washington & Jefferson downed Case Western Reserve, 38-33 Saturday night at Cameron Stadium. Pugh scored on a four-yard run on the game’s opening drive, then found John Peduzzi on a crossing route at the goal line for a five-yard touchdown pass with more than four minutes left in the opening quarter. The Spartans got on the board with an 82-yard drive before Ricky Hunter’s season-long 33-yard field goal gave the Presidents a 10-point cushion. Simmons blocked Joseph Rhodes’ punt on the next possession and Kobe DeRosa picked it up and rumbled in from five yards out, putting the Red & Black up 24-7 at the midway point of the second quarter. Case Western, trying to stay in the NCAA playoff hunt, responded with scores late in the second quarter and on the opening drive of the third quarter to pull within four points. Pugh engineered perhaps the season most impressive response, an 83-yard, 14-play scoring drive, capped by the first of two second-half touchdown passes to Jacob Macosko. The latter, on the first play of the fourth quarter, covered 47 yards and saw Macosko haul in a pass tipped by the defender. Case added a pair of quick scores in the fourth but the W&J defense held off the Spartans on their final possession. Avery Keith delivered a QB sack with under two minutes to play and Case out of time-outs.
W&J ran for 156 yards against the Spartans’ defense, one of the nation’s leading run defenses coming into the game. Justin Huss ran for 67 yards on eight carries. Owen Petrisek added 36 tough yards, most of that in the second half. Pugh was 20-of-35 for 275 yards and three touchdowns. Macosko had seven catches for 107 yards and two scores. Puduzzi caught four throws for 87 yards and a touchdown. The win by W&J puts both teams at 6-2 on the year with two games to play.