CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Washington & Jefferson football team was unable to mount a late-game rally in a 35-28 loss at Case Western Reserve.

With the loss, the No. 17/15 ranked Presidents drop to 5-2 on the season and 3-2 in the Presidents' Athletic Conference, making it difficult for W&J to earn a fourth straight NCAA Division III playoffs appearance. The Spartans improve to 6-1 overall and 6-0 in league games.

Jesse Zubik racked up his eighth career 100-yard performance with a career-high 196 yards, while matching his collegiate best with 12 receptions. Pete Coughlin passed for a season-high 377 yards on 28-of-37 through the air, with two going for scores -- one each to Ryan Ruffing and Zubik. Ruffing rushed for 118 yards and two scores on 21 carries.

Jalen Morris led all players with a game- and career-high 17 tackles, his second-straight contest with double figures in stops. Dan Graziano also established a new career mark with 16 tackles, while Luke Merhaut also made a new high water mark at 11 stops. Ryan Snedeker led W&J with 1.5 sacks to go with his career best 12 tackles and Morris added 2.0 TFL, 1.0 sack and two forced fumbles.

W&J struck first on a 14-yard scoring catch by Ruffing from Coughlin at the 8:49-mark of the second quarter, as both teams found the end zone twice in the second quarter to go 14-14 into halftime. The second score of the period by the Presidents was a 29-yard rush by Ruffing that made it 14-7, but Case answered with a score with 26 seconds left in the first half.

The Presidents opened the scoring in the second half as well as Coughlin connected with Zubik from 59 yards out on the third play from scrimmage of the stanza, 21-14. The next two scores were passing strikes by Case quarterback Rob Cuda, helping the Spartans take a 28-21 lead with 2:00 to play in the third quarter.

Ruffing, the NCAA Division III active leader in total touchdowns and points, tied the game with 5:34 to play with his third TD of the game from three yards out. Case needed just two plays and 31 seconds to re-take the lead on a 39-yard TD pass from Cuda, who finished with 278 yards and five touchdowns through the air and another 100 on the ground.

After a W&J punt, the defense was able to get the ball back for W&J with what appeared to be nearly two minutes on the clock, but the game clock ran off extra time that was never added back and the Presidents ended up getting the ball back with 49 seconds left after Case was able to run a full 40 seconds of the play clock off before punting.

An intentional grounding call after W&J advanced the ball near midfield, despite Eric Scott being near the incompletion, brought a 10-second run off to 17 seconds. The next play saw a roughing-the-passer call against Case to put the ball inside CWRU territory with 10 seconds, but Alex Rowse's pass was intercepted, ending the game after one Case kneel-down.

Washington & Jefferson will play its third-straight night game next Saturday, Oct. 31, with a 7 p.m. kickoff at Geneva.