Last week, the Waynesburg University football team held its own in the first half at Carnegie Mellon. The Yellow Jackets entered the locker room with the score tied at three before the Tartans pulled away in the second half for a 24-3 win. 

Saturday afternoon’s game against Grove City [5-2, 4-2] at John F. Wiley Stadium told a different tale but ended with the same result. The Wolverines owned the first 30 minutes, jumping out to a 21-0 lead and a 28-3 lead at halftime. Grove City held off a late, mini-comeback attempt for a 42-24 win. 

Grove City’s Wesley Schools stole the show, and ran the ball 35 times for 324 yards and five touchdowns. The 324 yards were the most ever for a Grove City player in a regular-season game. It was only the second-highest output of Schools’ career, however. The senior went off for 359 yards in postseason play last season against Morrisville State.

In total, Grove City rushed for 437 yards and six touchdowns, averaging 8.6 yards per carry on the afternoon.

Waynesburg [1-6, 1-5] knew Grove City’s ground game would be a lot to handle. The Wolverines came in as the second-ranked rushing offense in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference, behind only Geneva and its notorious triple-option attack. For Waynesburg head coach Chris Smithley, Schools’ big day had a lot to do with how his offensive line performed. 

“He’s a special back, don’t get me wrong, but that offensive line is as good as any offensive line that we see,” Smithley said.

Schools was also quick to praise his line. 

“I think just the o-line did a really great job of opening up holes…,” Schools said. “The [receivers] Cody Gustafson and Cam Drake, they’re a threat on the outside. I think Waynesburg’s defense really wanted to make sure we didn’t throw [to] them, so that just opened up the run game.”

It took the Wolverines less than three minutes to draw first blood. Grove City’s first possession ended on a 1-yard run by Schools, his first touchdown of the afternoon. Nick Morrow’s extra point made it 7-0.

Schools struck again later in the quarter, this time from 35-yards to push Grove City’s lead to two touchdowns. Things didn’t get better for Waynesburg in the second quarter. Once again, Grove City scored, and again, it was Schools, running in this time from six-yards out. Morrow’s PAT gave Grove City a commanding 21-0 lead, and the Yellow Jackets never recovered. 

Waynesburg had its chances in the first half. The Yellow Jackets got the ball to the Grove City 35- yard line on their first possession before turning it over on downs. Smithley said a theme of the first half was his team moving the ball, chewing the clock, but not coming away with any points. 

“”We didn’t finish drives with the points,” he said. “We had to possess the football, and we had to finish drives with points. We knew that their offense was going to get their yards on the ground. We knew that that was going to be the situation.”

Aside from points, the first half was even in virtually every statistical area. Waynesburg beat Grove City in first downs, 13-10, and held the ball for 20 minutes and 14 seconds of the 30 minute half. Despite this, Grove City led 21-3 at halftime. 

The Yellow Jacket offense had arguably its best half of the season in the second half, scoring 21 points. Unfortunately, Grove City also scored three touchdowns, with two coming via Schools.

A 6-yard touchdown scamper by Zach Trusky early in the fourth quarter made it 35-10 with 11:00 left. 

After that, Waynesburg tried to comeback scoring on two touchdown runs. One by Jordan Taylor and the other from freshman running back Justin Flack. Flack’s run and Mike Ryhal’s extra point made it 35-24 Grove City with less than five minutes remaining, but the Wolverines iced the game with  Schools’ final touchdown run, giving them a 42-24 lead with a little more than a minute to play.

Waynesburg quarterback Mason Schrenker completed 17 of 29 passes for 184 yards and a touchdown. Flack ran for 111 yards on 23 carries and a score. It was the first 100 yard game of his young career. 

Waynesburg has three games left, starting next week at John F. Wiley Stadium against St. Vincent. Kickoff is at 1:30 p.m.

Despite the loss, Smithley was proud of the team for how it fought at the end of the game. 

“I am extremely pumped about the way our guys fought, being down 21-3, and how we battled back to an 11-point game in the fourth quarter,” he said. “I can’t say enough about the guys and how they played to fight back into that game.”