The home opener didn’t go as planned for the Waynesburg University football team, as the Jackets fell to the Bethany Bison, 41-17, despite jumping out to a 10-0 lead. 

“We did not play to our potential for four quarters,” head coach Chris Smithley said. “We accept that, I accept that, and we’re gonna work harder to get that right. Rome wasn’t built in one night, so we are going to stay the course here.” 

Waynesburg [0-3, 0-2 in PAC] will look to “stay the course” this week when they travel to Beaver Falls and take on the Geneva College Golden Tornadoes [1-2, 1-1 in PAC]. 

Two of the past three games against Geneva were low-scoring wins (10-7 in 2018 and 10-9 in 2016). The goal defensively, Smithley said,  is to continue to stymee Geneva’s offense.

“If we can play defensively to holding them to 10, 14 points, that’s obviously going to increase our chances of winning the game,” Smithley said. “Defensively we have a big task this week of shutting down this run game.”

Smithley also pointed out that while the Geneva offense will run their standard triple option offense, , their defensive scheme will look different than last season.

“Now they’re doing a little more two-high things, doing a little more stuff from a pressure standpoint, playing some non-typical coverages behind some pressures because the ball is gonna come out quick,” Smithley said. “For the most part, we are seeing a similar Geneva team that we’ve seen in the past and we’ll plan accordingly to what we see of them on tape.”

Last week, Bethany had great success running the ball against Waynesburg, gaining 347 yards on the ground. Although the Jackets haven’t  done what they’ve wanted to do in slowing down the run game in 2019, Smithley plans to beat Geneva by controlling the football, much like they did in last year’s win.

. “We took their game plan and used it against them and we’re gonna have to do that again. We had some guys make some good plays,” Smithley said. 

Another benefit of controlling the football is giving the defense much needed rest between drives, which Smithley wants to see Saturday.

“Field position is key in a game like this and every time your defense is out there, it’s like being in a high rate of speed car crash,” Smithley said. “So limiting the amount of times that their offense is snapping the ball is going to be key for us.”

Overall, Smithley wants to see more improvement in his team’s run defense and believes it is imperative to success Saturday.

“[The key] is to stop the run,” Smithley said. “We can’t give up 300 rushing yards. I think we have to score points and possess the football and we have to finish drives. We have to score touchdowns and we’ve got to make splash plays on special teams. If we do those things, I feel like we are in a really good place.”

Kickoff is set for 3 p.m. on Saturday. No matter what takes place, Smithley wants his team to finish., 

“As a team, when you smell that blood in the water, you have to attack,” Smithley said. “That’s something we need to do a better job at.”