WASHINGTON – TJ Tutone was 36 of 45 for 403 yards and three touchdowns, and scored the game-winning points with under a minute to play to lead Catholic University to a 40-36 victory over Washington and Lee at Cardinal Stadium on Saturday.

With the victory, the Cardinals snap a five-game losing streak and improve to 3-6 and 1-5 in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference.  W and L drops to 1-8 (1-5).

After the Generals took a 36-33 lead on an Evan Hinkle run up the middle and two-point conversion with 1:31 left, Matt McMahon gave CUA good field position by returning the kickoff  23 yards to the Cardinals' 39-yard line.

Tutone completed his first three passes of the drive, the last for 21 yards over the middle to running back Matt Perno to bring the ball to the Generals' 26. Following an incompletion, Tutone found McMahon for 20 yards. Tutone capped the six-play, 61-yard march with a quarterback draw with 25 seconds to go.

With one final chance, on second down and 10 from its 33, W and L quarterback Charlie Nelson found Witt Hawkins down the left sideline for 46 yards to give the Generals the ball at CUA's 21. Nelson dropped back to pass with five seconds left but he was hit and his pass fell incomplete. A false start penalty against W & L ended the game.

At the 10:12 mark of the first quarter, Nelson completed an eight-play drive of 55 yards with a 26-yard touchdown run. The Cardinals responded when Tutone nailed a 19-yard TD pass to Evan Calvo with 8:46 remaining. Peter Rosa missed the PAT, leaving CUA trailing 7-6.

Both teams gathered ground, but could not manufacture a touchdown throughout most of the second quarter. With 23 second remaining, Nelson increased the Generals' lead on a four-yard touchdown scamper to cap 10 plays of 55 yards for a halftime score of 14-6.

After the breather, the Cardinals found the end zone twice in a row, beginning with Matt McMahon's 4-yard run touchdown midway through the third quarter and concluding with a 45-yard touchdown pass connection from Tutone to Nikolas Echeverria. The two successful drives provided CUA with its first lead of the day, 20-14.

With 1:39 remaining, the Generals regained yet another one-point lead, 21-20. Marshall Hollerith capped four plays of 74 yards with a 14-yard touchdown run. Walker Brand set up the score with game-high 43-yard run.

The Cards responded at the 12:02 mark of the final quarter when Tim Murphy collected a 41-yard touchdown pass from Tutone to give CUA a 27-21 lead.

About four minutes later, with the clock reading 8:17, Hinkle scored on a 22-yard run to give W and L a 28-27 advantage. Hinkle finished with 82 yards on the ground.

Perno (47 yards rushing) scored from 4 yards with 5:05 remaining to put the Cardinals back on top, 33-28.

The Cardinals put together 499 yards of total offense, with 403 yards through the air and 96 on the ground. Echeverria caught eight passes for 89 yards and one TD.

Tim Murphy caught six passes for 99 yards for CUA. Billy Conroy and Perno caught five apiece.

Defensively, CUA's Vinny Caniglia tallied a team-best 11 tackles and Anthony Santo registered nine stops of his own.

The Generals finished with 523 yards of total offense. They did most of their damage running the ball for 443 yards. Nelson led the way with 157 yards on 21 carries. Brand ran for 76 yards and McKenna Johnston 55. Their success on the ground allowed them to possess the ball for 38 minutes and 22 seconds.

Nelson didn't have much success through the air, completing just 4 of 12 for 80 yards.

CUA returns to Cardinal Stadium to wrap up the season by hosting Bridgewater (Va.) on Saturday, Nov. 15 at 1 p.m. Prior to the contest, Cardinal Head Coach Dave Dunn will honor the members of this season's senior class.

-CUA-