St. Louis, Mo., Oct. 29, 2016 – The Washington University in St. Louis football team had its five-game winning streak snapped with a 56-38 loss to No. 25-ranked Case Western Reserve University Saturday at Francis Field in St. Louis.
WashU allowed a school-record 707 yards of total offense in the defeat – 435 yards on the ground and 272 through the air. Case Western Reserve junior quarterback Rob Cuda totaled 463 yards of total offense (191 rushing, 272 passing) in the win.
Case Western Reserve improved to 8-0, 2-0 in the University Athletic Association, while WashU dropped to 6-2, 1-1 in the UAA. With the win, Case claimed at least a share of the UAA title. It's the final season of the UAA, as the teams also play in two other conferences: Case in the PAC and Wash U in the SAA.
WashU struck first on its opening drive after senior running back Austin Smestad took a screen pass from Tomlin and scampered 56 yards for the touchdown. The TD for Tomlin was the 70th of his career.
Case answered right back with a TD, and then Adrian Cannon picked off Tomlin and returned it into WashU territory. The turnover led to a six-yard rush by Jacob Burke to give the Spartans their first lead of the game at 14-7 with 8:02 left in the first.
The Spartan defense forced a punt, and then continued to pound the rock against the WashU defense. The Spartans started from their own one-yard line, and then put together a 12-play, 99-yard drive and made it 21-7 following a 15-yard pass from Cuda to Brendan Lynch.
WashU answered back with a 22-yard touchdown from Tomlin to senior tight end Matt Page to trim the lead to 21-14. The Bears recovered an onside kick on the ensuing play, but Case stopped WashU on a three and out to force a punt. The Spartans totaled 246 yards of offense in the first quarter.
Case scored on its fourth-straight possession following a five-yard run by Myles Anthony to push the lead to 28-14, and then Burke plunged in from one-yard out to make it 35-14 with 3:47 left in the half.
The Bears scored 10 unanswered points in the final 2:04 after a 13-yard touchdown pass from Tomlin to Page and then junior Dan Kalvaitis booted a 19-yard field goal as the half ended to make it 35-24.
Case had a 445-318 advantage in total offense in the opening half.
Cuda tossed a 22-yard TD pass to Lynch on Case's first possession of the third quarter, but WashU answered right back with a 16-yard TD run by Smestad to make it 42-31. That would be as close as the Bears would get as Burke scored from 43 yards out and Anthony ran it in from two yards out to make it 56-31.
Sophomore quarterback Ryan Arthur tossed a 14-yard TD pass to sophomore wide receiver Matthew Goldberg with 51 seconds remaining to round out the scoring.
Tomlin completed 24-of-45 passes for 341 yards and three touchdowns, while senior wide receiver Kevin Hammarlund went over 100 yards for the fifth-straight game with seven catches for 136 yards. Page added five receptions for 92 yards and two touchdowns.
Sophomore linebacker Jake Coon tied his career-high 13 tackles, a sack and a tackle for loss to lead the WashU defense.
WashU celebrates Senior Day Saturday, Nov. 5, against Hendrix College. Kickoff is set for Noon (CT) at Francis Field.
BEAR NOTEBOOK: WashU leads the all-time series with Case 20-11, but the Spartans have won the last two meetings … The Bears are 16-3 at home the past four seasons … Hammarlund recorded the 200th catch of his career … Tomlin went over 8,000 passing yards for his career … Freshman Johnny Davidson punted six times for an average of 44.7, including a long of 51 and three inside the 20.