Despite the Waynesburg University Yellow Jackets losing 15-14 to the Thiel College Tomcats, the game became more than two teams battling till the final drive. 

In the fourth quarter of the game on one of the final drives of the game, away from the play on the field Waynesburg University offensive line coach and football operations manager Russ Moore went down on the field. 

“I saw paramedics and trainers coming over there, it was scary… I teared up a little bit.” Waynesburg University defensive coordinator Dave Arnold said. “I initially thought it was a heart attack and then they [paramedics] started working on him and I heard him talking a little bit and some signs and in a positive way.”

The paramedics were immediately giving attention to Moore and the ambulance was brought onto the field immediately to get him to the nearest hospital. 

“After the game I didn’t ride back with the team I actually rode back with my father.” Waynesburg University offensive lineman Frank Cortazzo IV said. “We actually stopped at the hospital he was sent to, and he was in good condition.”

Coach Moore has since been released from the hospital and has been back to his normal self.

Cortazzo continued with “Coach Moore bleeds Waynesburg… Just to think you know, a 65-year-old guy passes out on the sideline his first thought right after that is “I’m back, I’m ready to come back.”

On Thiel College’s final drive of the game Waynesburg brought them to a fourth down and four yards to go, before that bright yellow flag was thrown on the field.

Senior linebacker Jaquavius Valle-Smith had pushed Thiel’s Joseph Fell after being a few yards out of bounds and drew a personal foul penalty that gifted the Tomcats a new set of downs.

“We’re not that good of a team to overcome those types of mistakes and those mistakes can be corrected, and they have not gone into week five,” Arnold said. 

That Thiel drive ended with a Fell six-yard rushing touchdown. The drive consisted of 21 plays and lasted 8:56, Waynesburg had just two-minutes to put together a game-winning drive down 15-14.

Waynesburg University quarterback Thomas Burke III came in to play quarterback after the first quarter of action and had the opportunity to get Waynesburg its first win of the season. 

“Tommy went in… he kind of gave us a spark plug type of effect and kind of got a few things going and was making some good reads and just giving us some energy,“ Waynesburg University head coach Dr. Cornelius Coleman said. 

Burke hit his wide receiver Raymond Davis III on a busted screen play, and it resulted in a fumble recovered by Thiel to put the nail in the coffin. 

Waynesburg now sits at the bottom of the Presidents’ Athletic Conference with an 0-5 record and its next opponent not coming up till Oct. 14 against the Saint Vincent College Bearcats (2-2).

“It’s always great to go into a bye week because you give young men the physical ailment of getting off of their feet,” Coleman said. “It’s an opportunity to build your body back up from a strength standpoint and to make sure that the next contest that you’re back close to 100% as you can possibly be.”

Waynesburg’s 0-5 start to the year is the worst start to a full fall season since 2017; an 0-7 beginning and not picking up a win till after its bye week. 

“The loudest message that I can say to them or to anybody within this campus community is they [Waynesburg’s football team] are physically giving everything that they have, and they are in each and every contest because of their talent level and just their desire,” said Coleman. “It’s on me about educating them more to understand how to finish things out and know what this game entails at this level.”