Two years ago, Garret Guthrie had a chance to kick a game-winning field goal at John F. Wiley Stadium.

In the first game of the 2016 season, Guthrie, then a sophomore, went to kick a 32-yard field goal with a little more than a minute to play and the Yellow Jackets down 17-16 to Muskingum.

The kick went wide left and Waynesburg lost the game. Since then, Guthrie has struggled with injuries and this season, he had to watch from the sidelines for the first five games.

Now, finally healthy and playing before a Homecoming crowd Saturday against Carnegie Mellon, Guthrie again had a chance to win the game for the Jackets. This time, he cashed in, nailing a 35-yarder with less than two minutes on the clock to put Waynesburg ahead 24-21.

Senior safety Andrew Brncic sealed the win with an interception on the Tartans’ ensuing possession, and Waynesburg (3-3, 3-2) won its third straight game for the first time since 2014.

“I’m not the same kicker as I was two years ago,” Guthrie said. ‘‘When we come together as a team, we bring ourselves up.”

Head coach Chris Smithley said that going with Guthrie over freshman Garrett Horne, who had started Waynesburg’s first five games, had to do with Guthrie’s experience and dedication.

“He cares dearly about this football program,” Smithley said. “He came off the injury and he got healthy, and we felt that he was kicking the ball well in practice. I’m always going to go with the senior in that respect.”

The Jackets drew first blood right away to begin the game. Junior quarterback Tyler Perone led a seven-play, 74-yard drive that ended with Perone’s first rushing touchdown of the season from 13-yards out. Perone went 3-3 passing with 44 yards on the drive and rushed for 19 more yards on two carries. Guthrie’s extra point was good, and Waynesburg led, 7-0.

After the defense forced a three-and-out, Perone kept the offense moving. The Jackets started the drive in Tartans’ territory and took advantage with an eight-play, 43-yard scoring drive that ended with a six yard rushing touchdown by junior running back Chad Walker, who ended the day with 61 yards on 17 carries. With 5:22 to play in the first quarter, Waynesburg was out to its biggest lead of the season at 14-0.

The Yellow Jackets’ defense also came up big in the first quarter. After the Jackets went up by 14, the Tartans (2-1, 1-3) responded by driving the ball down to the Waynesburg 1-yard line. On fourth-and-goal, head coach Rich Lackner decided to go for it, and senior linebacker Logan Eller stopped junior running back Chris Haas at the goal line to keep the game at 14-0.

Carnegie Mellon threatened again on its next possession, driving to the Waynesburg 21-yard line. Once again, the defense came up big. On third-and-eight, junior defensive back Brennan Sefick picked off junior quarterback Alex Cline to end the threat.

The Tartans finally cracked the end zone midway through the second quarter, when a five-yard touchdown pass from Cline to senior receiver Karl Kumm capped a 10-play, 54-yard drive. The Tartans tied the game on their next possession when Haas finished a seven-play, 50-yard march with a three-yard touchdown run. He finished the day with 63 yards on 20 carries.

Both of the Tartans’ scoring drives in the second quarter started near Waynesburg territory, while the Jackets best starting field position in the quarter was at their own 27-yard line.

“It was a field position battle there in the second quarter, and even in the third quarter we got into some field positions that we weren’t exactly excited about,” said Smithley. “But we knew what we had to do and we kept talking to our guys and we kept preaching to our guys what it was going to take to win, and they responded and made it happen.”

The Tartans took the lead on the first possession of the second half, with a one-yard run by Cline ending a 10-play, 60-yard possession. Cline finished the day going 15-26 with 161 yards along with a passing touchdown, a rushing touchdown and two interceptions. Neither team scored for the rest of the third quarter, and after starting the game with consecutive touchdowns, Waynesburg went more than a half of football game without putting up any points.

“We went out there and we took it to them the first two drives,” Perone said. “It’s a shame we couldn’t continue that behavior because the game probably wouldn’t have been as close…hopefully next week we come out and we score [on] three or four drives in a row and it’s a different football game.”

With 4:22 left and the contest tied at 21, Waynesburg took over at the Carnegie Mellon 48, aided by a 10-yard penalty on a punt return. A 19-yard pass from Perone to sophomore receiver Cole Booth and an eight-yard run by Walker put the Jackets at the Tartans’ 21, and on third-and-two, Walker ran for 15 more yards to set Waynesburg up with a first-and-goal at the six.

It briefly looked like the Jackets took the lead when Perone hit Booth in the end zone on a third-and-goal from the eight, but a holding penalty pushed the ball back to the 18-yard line. From there, Guthrie put the Jackets ahead and on the ensuing possession Brncic picked off Cline to seal Waynesburg’s third straight win.

Collectively, the Yellow Jackets outgained Carnegie Mellon 310-252 yards. Perone threw a season-high 41 passes and completed 22 of them for 222 yards and a touchdown. Booth led the way, receiving with 75 yards on seven catches, while junior Nick Moretti and sophomore JaWuan Jones each caught five balls, with Moretti picking up 57 yards and Jones 55. For the Tartans, Kumm led the way receiving with 78 yards on five catches.

Defensively, senior linebacker John-Glen Davis had 10 tackles for Waynesburg while sophomore linebacker Mason Tolliver posted a game-best 11 tackles for Carnegie Mellon.

The Jackets are now tied for third in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference with a 3-2 record, and their three conference wins are the most since 2014 when the team went 6-2 in the PAC. With four games left, Waynesburg has already eclipsed its win total from the past two seasons, in which the team went 2-8. The Jackets begin a stretch of three-straight road games next Saturday at Grove City; kickoff is at 1:30.

For Perone and Smithley, this win streak is a sign that the Jackets are going in the right direction.

“It’s huge for the program,” Perone said. “…We had a lot of recruits in the stands today, and moving this program forward we need those guys. Guys are going to want to come play for a program that isn’t [just] winning two games at the end of the year… I think that that’s huge for the program, and that’s huge for us as a team too.”

Smithely feels that Waynesburg’s work ethic is finally starting to produce results.

“It means that the things that we’re doing, we’re making great improvements,” he said. “I think that [getting to .500] matters for our guys because they work so hard and they’re doing everything that they can possibly do to be winners, and it’s starting to pay off for us.”