The Waynesburg University football team started the same way against Thiel this past Saturday as it ended its last game against Thomas More – with Jake Dougherty as the quarterback.

In his first start at quarterback in over a year, Dougherty helped lead the Yellow Jackets (1-7, 1-5) to their first win of the season over the Tomcats (1-7, 1-5) in dominating fashion, 34-7.

The junior has spent most of the season as a wide receiver after being a starter at quarterback as a freshman and a sophomore until his sophomore year was derailed by a season-ending injury.

For a team that had started its year 0-7 with sophomore quarterback Tyler Perone at the helm, interim head coach Chris Smithley was unsure heading into the contest whether or not Perone or Dougherty would be leading the team that day – but he just had a feeling that morning.

“Jake practiced really well all week,” said Smithley. “Tyler was the starter all the way up until Saturday morning…I felt with the way the game was going to be played and the rain and how everything was going to go, I just felt like Jake looked ready and Tyler looked the same, but Jake looked like he wanted that opportunity. I just had a gut feeling.”

Dougherty was up for the task as he, along with the running back combination of sophomore Chad Walker, junior Austin Wilson and freshman Jeremiah Doswell-Hardrick ran wild over the Thiel defense to the tune of 65 carries for 284 yards and four touchdowns.

Dougherty himself ran the ball 21 times for 82 yards and a touchdown and only had five pass attempts on the afternoon, completing just two and throwing an interception. In his first two years at Waynesburg prior, Dougherty had been almost all pass and little run. As a freshman, he threw for 1,872 yards and 19 touchdowns in 10 games and had a net rushing total of -62 yards and before he got hurt his sophomore year, he threw for 565 yards and four touchdowns in three games and ran for a net of 14 yards.

The change in game plan, Smithley said, was something that was going to be utilized no matter which quarterback started the game, and they were going to use those packages until the Tomcats stopped them – they never did.

“We’ll have that package like we did against Thiel [in coming weeks],” said Smithley. “When we put that stuff in last week, I thought we’d maybe run it five times. We ended up running it 22 times. It was just one of those mindsets that ‘hey, it was working and they weren’t stopping it, so we’re just going to keep doing it until you stop it.’”

Thiel started the game with the ball and Waynesburg immediately forced a three-and-out. The Tomcats punted the ball to freshman JaWuan Jones, who sparked the Yellow Jacket offense with an 84-yard touchdown return to open up the scoring.

“He’s a really good athlete and we tried to gear some more things on offense towards him, but he’s going to be that guy on special teams for us and we needed that,” said Smithley. “We needed a break, we needed something to happen and we needed a big play to happen on special teams. We were due for that and it’s been long overdue for something like that to happen.”

The Tomcats immediately answered with a 72-yard touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Ronald Brown to freshman wide receiver Marcus Waddy. Waynesburg was able to buckle down after that, not allowing any more points and keeping junior running back Nick Barca, the second leading rusher in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference in terms of yards per game, in check.

The Yellow Jackets scored 27 unanswered points the rest of the game to run away with their first win of the season.

“It feels good,” said Smithley. “I think it’s something we needed to have happen just to reinforce what these guys are doing and the work they are putting in to be worth it,” said Smithley. “We had the best week of practice I thought we had all year last week. Now you go out and your play reflects that the way it did. I think that’s extremely important in getting this program in a place we want it to be.”

Smithley was especially impressed with the defensive effort from the unit as a whole, noting that stopping Barca was the No. 1 priority for the team and the emergence of a few key players.

“Our defense played well other than the first play where we had a blown coverage,” he said. “Extremely solid all day, a lot of energy and played relentless across the board. [Senior defensive lineman] James Roundtree played out of his mind in this game – it was the best game he’s played. [Junior linebacker] John-Glen [Davis], week-in and week-out, just doing everything that he needs to do to just become the leader of this team and to take the next step in leadership. Just really impressed with both of those guys.”

Looking ahead towards this Saturday against Saint Vincent, Smithley has not committed to a definitive starting quarterback in the PAC matchup. However, he said that Dougherty has put himself in a good position to maintain the position for the second straight week.

“Right now that’s still up in the air,” he said. “I think that [Jake has] earned the right to practice as the starter. He’s going to have that opportunity to continue doing what he’s doing through the week here.”