Pugh throws 6 TDs as W&J weathers delay

For the Observer-Reporter

WAYNESBURG – The football team at Waynesburg University finally found a way to stop rival Washington & Jefferson.

A weather delay.

With 1:22 remaining in the first half Saturday, the game was stopped after lightning struck near Wiley Stadium. The automatic 30-minute delay for each strike put the game on ice for 21⁄2 hours and delayed W&J's 55-16 victory in a Presidents' Athletic Conference game.

W&J moved to 3-0 overall and 3-0 in the conference. Waynesburg fell to 0-3 overall and 0-3 in the conference.

"That's the first time I've had that," said W&J head coach Mike Sirianni. "The funny thing is I was reading an in ESPN about all these weather delays and what to do about them."

So he got his assistant coach Carter Santo and the two made a trip to a nearby grocery store.

"We bought bananas, oranges, Gatorade, peanut butter sandwiches. He saved the day. I'm proud of the way our kids handled it, especially my man Carter Santo."

W&J quarterback Jacob Pugh completed 20 of 29 passes for 355 yards and six touchdowns. He was one touchdown toss away from tying the school's single-game record of seven. He remains one behind Pete Coughlin, who did it twice in the 2016 season.

"That was the first time I had to sit through it. It was long; that's for sure," Pugh said. "We didn't really know what was going on. Multiple times, the sun came out. We thought we were going to play. There must have been some (lightning) nearby."

W&J wide receiver John Peduzzi caught three of Pugh's six TD passes. He caught seven passes overall for 207 yards.

Before the game was halted because of a weather delay with 1:22 left in the half, W&J had built a 28-6 lead.

Jacob Pugh threw four touchdowns passes, two to John Peduzzi and one each to Jacob Macosko and Kobe DeRosa.

Pugh hit Peduzzi with a 54-yard touchdown pass to open the scoring then found Macosko from seven yards out to make it 14-0. He hit Peduzzi from 23 yards to make it 21-6. DeRosa finished the scoring before the weather delay by connecting with Pugh from 221 yards out.

W&J rolled up 245 total yards in the first half.

Waynesburg scored the third touchdown of the game when Carson Shriver bulled over from the one. The extra-point attempt by Drew Pinkerton was no good and W&J led 14-6. The touchdown was set up by Pugh's first interception of the season.

Waynesburg had two long drives dashed by W&J's defense. A fourth-down pass attempt by quarterback Samuel Barber was turned into a sack and gave W&J the ball back. In the first quarter, Waynesburg drove 77 yards but again could not score.

After the lightning delay, Waynesburg got a 29-yard field goal from Pinkerton.

Waynesburg rushed for 120 yards on 44 tries and passed for 117.

"The tables were balanced," said Waynesbug head coach Dr. Cornelius Coleman. "We just didn't play very well in the second half. We gave up way too many points. It's the simple thing – the fundamentals, we have to get back to. The smallest mistakes turn out to be huge."