Coming into last Saturday’s matchup against Geneva, the Waynesburg University football team was challenged with a tall task—stop the Golden Tornadoes’ potent rushing attack.

The triple-option offense ranked eighth in all of DIII football in rushing offense, totaling 328 yards-per-game entering the game featuring the Presidents’ Athletic Conference rivals.

The Yellow Jacket defense was not only up for the task, but attacked it head on and limited Geneva to just 208 yards on the ground on 53 carries, 3.9 yards per carry compared to their season average of 5.07.

In a game where both team’s defenses shined while offenses sputtered at times, the Jackets came away with a 10-7 win.

“Our guys work so hard and they play so hard on Saturdays,” said head coach Chris Smithley. “Our defense, that’s something that we’ve always kind of had in our corner—the way our defense plays football here at Waynesburg and the mentality that they play with. They played great Saturday.”

Of the Yellow Jackets’ eight offensive possessions in the first half, five ended in a punt, one ended in an interception, one ended in a turnover on downs and the offense ran out of clock in the half after recovering a fumble on the Geneva 32-yard line with 31 seconds to go.

The Golden Tornadoes, though, were similarly held in check aside from a 10-yard Trewon Marshall touchdown midway through the second quarter. In Geneva’s seven drives that didn’t end in the touchdown, they punted five times, threw an interception and fumbled once.

The defensive effort kept the team in the game early and often, including a key stop in the third quarter. Waynesburg held off the Golden Tornadoes on four-straight plays within its own five-yard line—keeping the game at 7-0 and causing Geneva to turnover on downs at the Waynesburg 1-yard line.

“You talk about the goal line stand—that wins us the football game,” Smithley said. “We were able to get them off the field and we were able to make stops when we needed to make stops, and we finally played a fourth quarter as a team, which was something that obviously got us the [win].”

After the game was tied up, the defense continued to limit Geneva, forcing two more punts before Perone again led the team down the field to set up freshman kicker Garrett Horne’s game-winning 20-yard field goal to give Waynesburg its first win of 2018.

Considering the intricacies of the triple-option offense, Smithley knew to trust his defensive coordinator’s instinct as the Yellow Jacket offense kept working to find its stride late in the game.

“They made some adjustments to move the football, and then we made some adjustments, I mean it was a chess match,” Smithley said. “Coach Venick did a great job of getting his adjustments right and getting these guys stopped when we needed to.”

This also was, according to Smithley, the first week in which Waynesburg’s defense had each intended member of the starting lineup healthy and ready to go, which he feels really helped the defense click on almost every facet Saturday.

“The reason we were so successful is because of how we fit together and played as a unit defensively,” he said. “I can’t say enough about how well our defense played overall.”

To this point in the season, the defense has been led by junior linebacker Tyler Smith, who was recently named PAC Defensive Player of the Week for his performance against Geneva. In the game, he managed 12 total tackles, a sack and a forced fumble. Through four weeks, Smith is second in the PAC with 38 tackles.

Other key contributors thus far on defense are senior linebackers Garrett Hepner and John-Glen Davis, who have 23 and 20 tackles, respectively. Junior defensive back Brennan Sefick has made his mark all over the field as well, totaling 18 tackles, four passes defended and an interception.

Coming off a win against the top-rated rushing attack in the PAC, Waynesburg and its defense is set to take on Thiel this Saturday. The Tomcats have just 11 yards on the ground through four weeks this season.

“A win’s a win, we enjoyed it over the weekend, but now it’s time to go back to work,” Smithley said. “We have to find a way to go 1-0 this week now.”