Mauricio Garibay's 46-yard field goal with 57 seconds remaining hit the cross bar and bounced over, lifting host Washington & Jefferson to a 31-28 victory against Johns Hopkins in the first round of the NCAA Division III football playoffs Saturday afternoon in Washington, Pennsylvania.
FB: Mauricio Garibay gives it just enough leg to make the 46 yard field goal. W&J takes the lead with 57 seconds left in the 4th quarter. W&J 31, JHU 28 #prezpride #d3fb pic.twitter.com/QjAzZREuOg
— Washington & Jefferson Athletics (@wjathletics) November 18, 2017
The Blue Jays (9-2) trailed for most of the first three quarters but seized a 28-21 lead with back-to-back touchdowns in a span of less than 90 seconds early in the fourth. Brett Caggiano caught a 10-yard scoring pass from David Tammaro with 13:13 to play to tie the score at 21, and Hopkins went ahead a minute and 21 second later on a 21-yard scoring run by Tyler Messinger.
After the Presidents (11-0) fought back to even the score at 28, JHU put itself in position to retake the lead, driving to W&J's 18-yard line with just over seven minutes remaining. But Tammaro's pass intended for Luke McFadden near the goal line was intercepted by O'Shea Anderson.
FB: O'shea Anderson says OH NO as he picks off JHU quarterback David Tammaro on the W&J 4 yard line #prezpride #d3fb pic.twitter.com/zzx1lMr2ww
— Washington & Jefferson Athletics (@wjathletics) November 18, 2017
The win propels the Presidents into the second round, where they will meet Frostburg State, which topped Wittenberg 35-7 Saturday afternoon.
Tammaro was 23-of-50 for 236 yards with one touchdown pass and the one rushing touchdown. Caggiano had seven receptions for 83 yards and the one score, and senior Ryan Cary added four receptions for a team-high 92 yards. Complete box score
Freshman Macauley Kilbane had a team-high 10 tackles for Johns Hopkins, and junior Michael Curry had five tackles and two interceptions.
Hopkins was making its seventh consecutive NCAA playoffs appearance.
