Football | 9/29/2018 4:57:00 PM

Box Score BETHANY, W.Va. -- The No. 12 ranked Washington & Jefferson football team jumped out to a 14-0 lead and held on for a 27-20 road win as the Presidents defeated Bethany.

With the victory, W&J remains undefeated on the season and moves to 5-0 with a 4-0 mark in the Presidents' Athletic Conference. W&J will be back in action for a pair of home games the next two weeks, beginning with a 1 p.m. kickoff against Case Western Reserve on Saturday, Oct. 6.

Junior quarterback Jacob Adams (Louisville, Ohio/Louisville) hit senior tight end Jake Cullen (Orchard Park, N.Y./Orchard Park) for a nine-yard touchdown at the 8:32-mark of the first quarter as the Red & Black scored on their opening drive for the sixth-straight game dating back to last season's NCAA Second Round game against Frostburg State. The lead was stretched out to 14-0 with 4:08 to play in the opening period when junior running back Jordan West (Washington, Pa./Washington) capped a six-play drive with a 21-yard jaunt to the end zone. W&J led, 14-7 at halftime.

A punt by freshman Jacob Sarver (Sarver, Pa./Freeport) pinned Bethany near their own goal line early in the second half, which, after a three-and-out, forced the Bison to punt from their own end zone. Senior defensive back Zac Quattrone (White Oak, Pa./Serra Catholic) raced in off the edge and blocked the punt and sophomore running back Jack Ryan (Lower Burrell, Pa./Burrell) jumped on top of the loose ball for a touchdown to make it a 20-7 game with 3:22 elapsed in the second half.

After a long scoring run by Bethany's quarterback got the Bison back within a score, Adams completed a nine-play, 70-yard drive by finding sophomore wide receiver Andrew Wolf (Ashland, Ohio/Hillsdale) from 14 yards out to cap the W&J scoring effort on the afternoon at the 4:05-mark of the third quarter. Bethany brought the game again back within a score with 6:39 to play, but W&J eventually ran out the clock to secure the win.

Adams finished the game 27-of-39 for 284 yards and a pair of scoring strikes, while Wolf caught a career-high 12 passes for 138 yards and a score, his nation-leading 13th of the season. The sophomore has now gone over 100 yards in each of the first five games this season. Senior wide receiver Brandon Barnes (Hagerstown, Md./St. Johns) hauled in four receptions for 40 yards. West made five grabs for 44 yards and combined with sophomore running back EJ Thompson for 94 yards on 28 carries.

Defensively, the Presidents boasted 18 tackles for loss and held the Bison to 304 yards, including just 93 through the air. Sophomore linebacker Max Garda (Lower Burrell, Pa./Burrell) matched the PAC lead for single-game tackles and TFL, while establishing new career highs, at 15 stops and 5.0 TFL. Sophomore linebacker Sean Doran (New Castle, Pa./Neshannock) set a season-high with his first double-digit tackle game at 11 stops, while he was joined by four other teammates with at least 2.0 TFL. Junior defensive lineman Jeffrey Oxner (Silver Spring, Md./The Bullis School) was second on the team with 2.5 TFL.