Turnovers Lead to a 39-3 Tartan Win Over Waynesburg

(PITTSBURGH, Pa.) – The Carnegie Mellon University football team opened its home schedule of Saturday night with a 39-3 victory over Waynesburg University in Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) play. The Tartans even their record at 2-2 and are now 2-1 in PAC play with the Yellowjackets moving to 1-3, 1-2.

The Tartans forced five Yellow Jacket turnovers and held Waynesburg to 194 total yards of offense with only 45 yards on the ground. Carnegie ended with 293 yards of total offense.

Senior Sean Knight (New Canaan, Conn./New Canaan) ended the game with two interceptions. It marked the third time in Knight's career that he had multiple interceptions in a game. He now has 12 picks for his career which is tied for fourth most in program history.

Sophomore Robert Coury (Phillipsburg N.J./Phillipsburg) tabbed a team-high seven tackles with sophomore Kevin Cooke (Glen Ellyn, Ill./IC Catholic Prep) recording a career-best six tackles while also blocking a punt. Sophomore Logan Young (Moon Township, Pa./Moon Area) turned in a career-night, as he recorded an interception, which was returned for a touchdown, forced and recovered a fumble and recorded five tackles.

Sophomore Tre Vasiliadis (Great Falls, Va./Langley) led the Tartans on the ground with 93 yards on 11 carries and a touchdown. Sophomore Ben Mills (The Woodland, Taxes/Woodlands) passed for 128 yards and a touchdown on 11-of-22. Classmate Alex Javier (Reading Pa./Exeter Township) led the Tartans receivers a career-high six catches for 97 yards.

Waynesburg struck first when Keegan Raabe connected on a 27-yard field goal with 10:28 to play on the clock in the first quarter.

On the ensuing possession, Carnegie Mellon took a 7-3 lead when Mills found freshman Dominic Voiland (Cedarburg, Wis./Grafton) on a 6-yard touchdown strike. The score capped off a seven-play, 64-yard drive. On the Tartans next drive, Mills scored on a 10-yard run. The point-after was blocked to leave the score 13-3 with two minutes to play in the quarter.

Knight's first interception setup the Tartans third score of the game. With 11:11 to play in the first half junior Zachary Hamilton (Washington, N.J./Warren Hills Regional) pushed the score to 20-3 on a 12-yard run.

On the opening kickoff of the second half, Young forced and recovered a fumble which led to a 35-yard field goal by junior placekicker Hayden Hairston (Milton, Ga./Milton) that left the score 23-3.

The Tartans defense pushed the Yellow Jackets back to their own 2-yard line on the next possession and forced a punt. Cooke then penetrated the line to block the punt out of the back of the endzone for a safety with 6:47 on the clock in the third to make the score 25-3.

In the closing minute of the third quarter, Vasiliadis sprinted 33-yards for a touchdown to extend the Tartans lead to 32-3.

With 9:07 to play in the contest, Young intercepted Yellow Jackets quarterback Tyler Rains and returned it 47 yards for the pick-six. The point-after made the score 39-3.

The Tartans will travel to Bethany, West Virginia on Saturday, October 2 to play the Bison. Kick is set for 1:00 p.m.