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Football

No. 15/17 W&J Football Game Notes vs. Geneva

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WASHINGTON, Pa. -- The No. 15/17 Washington & Jefferson (7-0, 5-0) football team will close out the home portion of the 2014 regular season when it welcomes Geneva (2-5, 1-4) to Cameron Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 1 for a 1:30 p.m. kick-off.

The Series: Washington & Jefferson earned its 40th win in 61 tries last year with a 49-34 victory over Geneva at Cameron Stadium, marking the ninth win in a row for the Presidents in the series. W&J has topped the Golden Tornadoes 27 times in Washington and has not suffered a home loss to Geneva since 1973. Before Geneva joined the PAC and NCAA Division III, the two schools had not met since 1985. The GTs were previously NAIA Division II.

The Head Coaches: Mike Sirianni (Mount Union, '94) owns a 108-24 (.818) record at W&J in his 12th season as head coach. The five-time PAC Coach of the Year and two-time South Region Coach of the Year (2004, 2012) is fourth among all active NCAA coaches in winning percentage (minimum of 10 years). The Presidents have made 10 postseason appearances under Sirianni. Geno DeMarco (Geneva, '83) is in his 22nd season as the head coach of the Golden Tornadoes. He has amassed a record of 135-93 (.592).

W&J vs. The PAC: W&J holds a 318-134-10 (.699) winning percentage against current football-playing members of the Presidents' Athletic Conference. Washington & Jefferson has claimed 23 PAC Championships throughout the history of the league. W&J is 60-10 (.857) in conference games since Sirianni took over in 2003.
Bethany (70-21)    Carnegie Mellon (27-32-5)    Case Western (18-16-1)    
Geneva (40-19-2)    Grove City (37-13)    Saint Vincent (6-1)
Thiel (43-22-2)    Thomas More (5-5)    Waynesburg (38-3)
    Westminster (34-2)

The Last Meeting (Nov. 9, 2013 - W&J 49, Geneva 34): W&J earned Mike Sirianni his 100th career victory in his 11th season as head coach with a 49-34 win over Geneva at Cameron Stadium. QB Matt Bliss threw for four touchdowns, two each to Dan Lucas and Max Creighan, and Alex Baroffio became just the second W&J WR to top 3,000 receiving with his nine-catch, 81-yard performance. Dion Wiegand carried 23 times for 125 yards and two touchdowns and also took a kickoff 85 yards for a score in the second quarter. Defensively, Bryce Merrill recorded 12 stops and a sack and Jon Turner had 2.5 of his four tackles go down as sacks.

Scouting Geneva: Geneva rests squarely in the middle of the PAC in both scoring offense and defense, scoring 23.1 points per game, while yielding 25.6. The GTs are eighth in the league in total offense at 312.7 yards per game, while ranking fourth in total defense at 340.4 yards per contest. Geneva has done most of its damage on offense through the air, as it averages 233.6 yards passing and just 79.1 rushing, last in the PAC. QB Aaron Channing ranks fourth in the PAC with his 205.1 passing yards average. Josh Guiser is tied for third (with W&J's Daniel Lis and Max Creigan) at 6.0 receptions per game, while Lemuel Fuller catches 5.7 passes a night. Guiser (67.3 ypg) and Fuller (64.7 ypg) both rank in the top 10 in receiving yards per game. LB Jimmy Quinlan is second in the conference in tackles at 9.7 per game and 68 total, ranking behind only W&J's Jared Pratt. DB Nate Cannon leads the league with six interceptions and is second with 12 passes defended.

700 Club: The Presidents joined the illustrious NCAA 700 Win Club with a 48-30 win over Carnegie Mellon on Sept. 20. In this the 123rd season of varsity football, W&J has amassed a .642 winning percentage (704-383-40). Only two other NCAA Division III programs have reached 700 wins (Mount Union and Wittenberg). W&J became just the 25th program in all NCAA divisions to reach 700 all-time wins.

Complete list, updated Oct. 29:
913    Michigan
881    Yale
880    Notre Dame 
878    Texas
872    Nebraska
855    Ohio State
847    Oklahoma
845    Alabama
844    Harvard 
829    Penn 
807    Tennessee
802    Princeton
801    Southern California
773    Georgia
760    LSU
735    Mount Union 
734    Penn State
733    Wittenberg 
732    Auburn
718    West Virginia
708    Virginia Tech
707    Syracuse
706    Texas A&M
706    Georgia Tech
704    Washington & Jefferson

30 and Counting: W&J boasts 30-consecutive winning seasons as a football program. The Presidents 30 winning seasons rank fourth among all divisions of NCAA football behind Linfield (58), Florida State (37) and Mount Union (35). The last time W&J did not post a winning record was 1983 (3-5-1). That year, the top-grossing movie was Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, the top single was "Every Breath You Take" by The Police, a first-class stamp cost $0.20, and a gallon of regular gas cost $1.24.

House Recognition: The Pennsylvania House of Representatives recently appoved a resolution titled 'House Resolution 1073' that honors the Washington & Jefferson football team. It was introduced by state representative Brandon Neuman, who represents the 48th Legislative District in Washington County, and was unanimously approved. "Washington & Jefferson is a juggernaut in college football," said Neuman, a former college football player at the University of Richmond. "The school's football program is the 25th team in all National Collegiate Athletic Association divisions, and only the third NCAA Division III school, to reach 700 wins."

Oct-oob-yeah: With its 34-24 Homecoming win over Case Western Reserve last week, W&J improved to 42-7 in the month of October under Mike Sirianni.

Novembers to Remember: The Presidents own a 27-8 record under Sirianni in the month of November, including a 14-3 mark at home. W&J has not lost a regular-season November home game since a 10-7 loss to Buffalo State in the 2003 regular-season finale.

Poll Us: W&J continues to climb in the national polls, coming in at No. 15 in the latest American Football Coaches Association Top 25 poll. The Presidents also moved up from No. 18 to No. 17 in the D3football.com Top 25 poll. The first NCAA Regional Rankings of the season will be released following this weekend's games.

Ball Control: W&J is 22-3 when not committing a turnover under Sirianni. All three losses have come in the NCAA playoffs (2013, 2010 Mount Union; 2007 N.C. Wesleyan).

Play with a Lead: W&J is 85-3 when leading at halftime during Sirianni's tenure. Last weekend's 34-24 win over Case Western Reserve was the first time this season the Presidents did not hold a lead through 30 minutes (trailed 9-6).

Score More: W&J was held without a point in the second quarter against Case Western Reserve, snapping a string of 24-consecutive quarters with a point scored. The last time W&J had not put points on the board was the first quarter of the season-opener against Wooster. The six points in the first half against CWRU was also the lowest scoring half of the season.

Start Strong: W&J's 7-0 start matches its best start since 2009 when it was also 7-0 heading into a match-up with also unbeaten Thomas More where the Saints won 14-7 in Washington.

Home Sweet Home: W&J has finished the regular season undefeated and untied at home 45 times. If the Presidents top Geneva this week, it will mark the 46th time and eighth since 2000.

Fast and Furious: The W&J offense has run 152 more plays than its opponents through seven games (634-482). The Presidents are averaging 90.6 plays per game, which ranks first in all NCAA Divisions. Coming into the season, W&J had reached 90 plays in a game just twice under Sirianni and have already gotten there four times in 2014. 

Never Slow Down: W&J boasts the No. 5 offense in the nation according to total offense (528.3 yards per game). W&J is also seventh in NCAA Division III at 47.0 points per game.

National Leader: Junior RB Ryan Ruffing leads all NCAA Divisions in scoring at 18.9 points per game. His 19 rushing touchdowns are second in Division III and tied for fifth in all divisions. With 149.3 rushing yards per contest and 1,045 total, he ranks sixth in Division III on the ground.
Workhorse: Ruffing has topped 100 yards in seven-straight games to start the season, the longest such streak under Sirianni. The record for consecutive 100-yard performances in a season during Sirianni's tenure is eight by Ryan Mendel in 2006. Ruffing has carried 216 times so far this season. The school record is 372 by Hall of Famer Chris Babirad in 1992 and the top figure under Sirianni's tutelage is 294 by Mendel in '06.

Targets Acquired: WRs junior Daniel Lis (63) and senior Max Creighan (56) have accounted for 119, or 45.8 percent, of W&J's 260 passing targets. The two have combined to make 84 catches (42 each) for 972 yards (488-484 Lis leads) and nine touchdowns (5-4 Lis leads).

Three Bills: Sophomore QB Pete Coughlin has already topped 300 yards passing four times this season, the most since W&J Hall of Famer Bobby Swallow did it five times in 2008. The four games over 300 is tied for third in the Sirianni-era with Swallow's 2007 season. Chris Edwards has the most since 2003 with seven games of 300-plus yards passing in 2005.

Pick Six: Billy Kelley intercepted the third play from scrimmage of the second half against CWRU and raced 34 yards to the end zone marking the second-straight week his picked off a pass and the second time in a row a W&J defender returned an INT for a touchdown.

D-Fence: The Presidents surrendered just 271 yards of total offense to Case last week, marking the third-consecutive week W&J held its opponent to under 300 yards.

Run Away: Senior LB Jared Pratt leads W&J with 80 tackles, 67 of which have come on rushing plays, more than double the second-closest President (Ryan Torrance, 31 rushing tackles). Pratt has been in double digits for stops five times and led the Presidents in tackles five times this season. He has been in double digits nine times in 18 career games.

Saturday Special: A total of 23 W&J players have made at least one tackle on special teams this season. Freshman Jordan Yates leads with 13 tackles despite only playing on the opening kick-off against Bethany and missing the Case game. Junior Anthony Tutino is second with ST 10 tackles, include three multi-stop games, and sophomore Luke Merhaut is third at nine tackles with all of them coming in the last three games.h five special-teams stops in West Virginia, are tied for second at eight tackles apiece.
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Players Mentioned

Dan Lucas

#4 Dan Lucas

WR
6' 2"
Senior
Matt Bliss

#6 Matt Bliss

QB
5' 11"
Senior
Alex Baroffio

#15 Alex Baroffio

WR
5' 10"
Senior
Dion Wiegand

#32 Dion Wiegand

RB
5' 8"
Senior
Pete Coughlin

#3 Pete Coughlin

QB
5' 10"
Sophomore
Max Creighan

#10 Max Creighan

WR
5' 11"
Senior
Billy Kelley

#9 Billy Kelley

S
6' 2"
Junior
Daniel Lis

#11 Daniel Lis

WR
5' 10"
Junior
Bryce Merrill

#27 Bryce Merrill

DB
6' 2"
Junior
Jared Pratt

#19 Jared Pratt

LB
5' 11"
Senior
Ryan Ruffing

#28 Ryan Ruffing

RB
6' 1"
Junior
Ryan Torrance

#35 Ryan Torrance

LB
5' 9"
Sophomore

Players Mentioned

Dan Lucas

#4 Dan Lucas

6' 2"
Senior
WR
Matt Bliss

#6 Matt Bliss

5' 11"
Senior
QB
Alex Baroffio

#15 Alex Baroffio

5' 10"
Senior
WR
Dion Wiegand

#32 Dion Wiegand

5' 8"
Senior
RB
Pete Coughlin

#3 Pete Coughlin

5' 10"
Sophomore
QB
Max Creighan

#10 Max Creighan

5' 11"
Senior
WR
Billy Kelley

#9 Billy Kelley

6' 2"
Junior
S
Daniel Lis

#11 Daniel Lis

5' 10"
Junior
WR
Bryce Merrill

#27 Bryce Merrill

6' 2"
Junior
DB
Jared Pratt

#19 Jared Pratt

5' 11"
Senior
LB
Ryan Ruffing

#28 Ryan Ruffing

6' 1"
Junior
RB
Ryan Torrance

#35 Ryan Torrance

5' 9"
Sophomore
LB