Heading into the third quarter, tied 14-14, the Waynesburg University football team got the ball to start the second half coming off a 3-yard touchdown catch by sophomore running back Chad Walker from sophomore quarterback Tyler Perone. Momentum had swung in the Yellow Jackets favor, but Grove City had different ideas.

On the ensuing Waynesburg drive, the Wolverines forced a punt after five plays. Grove City then ate up 9:24 of clock in the third quarter on a 19-play, 86-yard drive that was topped off by sophomore quarterback Randall Labrie, who took the ball in himself for a 1-yard rushing touchdown. The score gave Grove City a 21-14 lead that they would not relinquish.

“That was a [19-play] drive that really took the wind out of our defense,” said interim head coach Chris Smithley. “Within that drive, there was a fourth-and-seven that they converted. Those are just things that we can’t let that stuff happen. We can’t let those drives go. That fourth-and-seven, we should have had that stopped…That was an opportunity that we had and we let that one get away from us.”

For Smithley, however, the turning point was not the scoring drive, but something that had plagued the Yellow Jackets during this game – penalties.

“The turning point in the game was that there was a time in the third quarter – it was the second time we had a false start on first down, and it came just after they scored to take the lead,” said Smithley. “I could feel the change in the game on their sidelines. On the false start – they got all excited about our false start, and that’s when I felt there was a big momentum shift because they were like, ‘hey, we can win this football game.’”

The Wolverines (2-3, 2-1) opened up the scoring in the game with Labrie connecting with freshman wide out Cody Gustafson for 18-yards with 5:15 left in the first quarter. Waynesburg (0-5, 0-3) responded as Perone found junior running back Austin Wilson for a 7-yard touchdown catch early in the second quarter. The scoring continued on the next drive as Grove City sophomore running back Wesley Schools scored on a 3-yard touchdown run to give the Wolverines the lead back.

As mentioned, Perone found Walker before the end of the half to keep it tied at 14.

After Grove City answered with its marathon drive to take the lead, Waynesburg struggled to get the offense rolling the rest of the way.

The Yellow Jackets final four drives of the game ended in disappointing fashion: turnover on downs at the Grove City 23-yard line, Perone interception, Perone interception and another Perone interception.

With multiple chances to potentially tie the game up, Smithley felt his young quarterback was trying to force the ball too much in the fourth quarter.

“We had guys open and I think that [Perone] tried to force the ball down the field more than he needed to, instead of sticking to the plan…,” Smithley said. “We thought we were good in the first half, we were on the same page. When things started flying at him a little bit and we needed to score, he tried forcing the ball a little bit more than he needed to…”

For Smithley, the game truly ended up being a tale-of-two-halves in terms of overall team play.

“We just didn’t play a complete game,” he said. “In the first half, I thought offensively we could have done and been positive with it. Then our mentality, for whatever reason, I feel like the attitude we had in the first half wasn’t there in the second half. That’s just part of having an inexperienced team and a team that once they win some games, we’re going to be fine. We’re good enough to beat a bunch of teams here.”

Freshman Jeremiah Doswell-Hardrick led Waynesburg with 52 yards rushing on 10 carries, the vast majority of which came in the first half. Perone wound up completing 16-of-34 passes for 173 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions. His favorite target on the day was freshman Cole Booth, who posted team highs in catches, four, and receiving yards, 63.

In regards to the run-game, Doswell-Hardrick’s effort led a rushing attack that finished with 121 yards on the ground, the first time all season the group has gone over 100 yards rushing in a game. Smithley was enthusiastic about the freshman’s performance and the overall unit as a whole.

“These guys are working their butts off. Jeremiah ran like that in a JV game this year, and my communication to him over the past three weeks has been that he needs to run like he did in the JV game,” said Smithley. “This is no different. I think that he was just young and timid and trying to get his feet wet in the deal. Saturday was the first day that he came out and really showed what he can do here.”

From a defensive standpoint, junior linebacker John-Glen Davis and senior linebacker Tristan Sandrosky paced the effort with 12 tackles a piece, while Davis added two pass breakups as well. Sophomore defensive back Deondre Marable had an interception in the fourth quarter as well. However, for Smithley, this game was more a matter of what didn’t get done on defense than what did happen.

“I think it just comes down to our guys tackling better,” said Smithley. “There were a lot of times where we had good positioning on the guys and we didn’t get them on the ground. That’s something – we haven’t had a game where we missed tackles like that. That’s something we have to get back to this week more and into the next opponent.”

Smithley said that the biggest thing right now for the team is continuing to grow in its process as it looks to find its niche as a football team.

“We have great kids. This isn’t going to affect them,” Smithley said. “Everybody in that locker room knows what we need to do and where we need to go and what it’s going to take. They know it’s a process, we’re in that situation.”

As the Yellow Jackets look towards an away game with Geneva this Saturday, Oct. 7, at 3 p.m., finding a way to limit the Golden Tornadoes’ triple-option offense is going to be the forefront of the game plan.

“Those guys have to be disciplined,” said Smithley. “Against the triple-option you have to play disciplined football, you have to play assignment football and you can’t miss hits this week. We’ll continue to get better, and the goal is to have an opportunity to win a football game and we have that opportunity.”