A football team wearing orange and black played at John F. Wiley Stadium this past Friday.
However, it wasn’t the Waynesburg University Yellow Jackets. It was the Jefferson Morgan Rockets, who are having renovations done to their stadium.
The Rockets and Bentworth Bearcats each headed into the game with only one win, both against Monessen.
Both teams battled back and forth in the first half. The Rockets and Bearcats traded scores on the teams’ first three possessions of the game.
Bentworth started off the scoring with a six-yard touchdown run from Owen Petrisek. Trevor Richardson made the point after to give the Bearcats a 7-0 lead early in the first quarter. Richardson made four out of the five extra points he attempted.
Petrisek punched in a two-yard rushing Touchdown later in the half. After halftime, Jefferson Morgan’s run defense stuffed Petrisek the rest of the night.
Another Owen joined the scoreboard after Petrisek’s scamper. This time it was Jefferson Morgan’s Owen Maddich hauling in a 29-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Colt Fowler. The Rockets failed on the two-point conversion, making it 7-6 Bearcats.
Maddich added on two more receiving touchdowns, one in each half. Maddich caught touchdowns of 38 and 34 yards respectively.
After Maddich’s first receiving touchdown, Bentworth’s Trent Cavanaugh scored from 10-yards away to put Bentworth up by eight.
On the ensuing Rockets drive, Fowler called his own number and ran it in from five yards out to trail by two.
Jefferson Morgan’s Colt Fowler started the season as a receiver but filled in at quarterback after sophomore Cole Jones got injured.
The Owen’s, Petrisek and Maddich, added in their second scores of the half for each team. The Rockets converted their two-point try making it all tied at 20 heading to halftime.
After halftime, Jefferson Morgan tacked on 20 straight unanswered points. Putting the game out of reach for Bentworth.
The Rockets fed running back Jonathan Wolfe to chew clock and to tire out the Bearcats’ defense.
Wolfe added the first two scores after halftime with touchdown runs from one and three yards out. Maddich caught his last touchdown of the day to give Jefferson Morgan a 40-20 lead.
In the fourth quarter, Bentworth tacked on two more touchdowns from Cavanaugh, but ultimately ran out of time and lost 40-34.
Bentworth’s record falls to 1-3 and they move on to play West Greene this Friday.
Jefferson Morgan is undefeated this season at John F. Wiley Stadium and improved to 2-2. The Rockets play the unbeaten California Trojans this Friday.