Saturday’s 10-7 win over Geneva at John F. Wiley Stadium was a big relief for everybody involved in the football program.

It was the Yellow Jackets’ [1-3, 1-2] first win of the season and ensured that the team wouldn’t start 0-4 for the third year in a row. For junior quarterback Tyler Perone, the win had an added meaning.

Perone’s college football career hasn’t been easy. After a successful run at Seton LaSalle High School, he played his first college season at Seton Hill University in 2015 before transferring to Waynesburg. In 14 career starts, Perone had never led the Jackets to victory, and he had a chance to do that in the final minutes of Saturday’s game when Waynesburg took over at its 20-yard line with the score tied at seven and 3:19 left to play.

“The biggest thing that I told myself was that it’s just another drive,” Perone said. “Don’t think about it as ‘all the pressure is on me.’ Sometimes I have a tendency to do that, to put a little too much pressure on myself, and this time I said, ‘I’m not going to do that, just going to play.’”

Perone went 5-7 for 42 yards and ran for an additional 12 yards on the drive, leading the Jackets to the Geneva 3-yard line.

Waynesburg had a first and goal at the seven, but couldn’t get into the end zone in the next three plays. Although the Jackets were just three yards away from a touchdown and have an inexperienced kicker in freshman Garrett Horne, for head coach Chirs Smithley, deciding what to do on fourth down was easy.

“We were kicking it,” Smithley said. “Absolutely 100 percent… Just kicking the football man, that’s all it is…we have 100 percent confidence in Garrett, and he didn’t mess up.”

Horne previously had only kicked three field goals in his college career. From 20-yards out, he nailed the kick to give Waynesburg its first lead of the day with 14 seconds left.

“It was like time was moving in slow motion,” Horne said. “I went over to the sideline to warm up a little bit, and time was just moving real slow. Then we called a time out, and I had to wait even longer. By the time it came, it was a short-range field goal, and it went in.”

By result of a squib kick attempt that resembled an onside kick, the Golden Tornadoes (2-2, 2-1) took over at the Waynesburg 46-yard line with a chance to get into field goal range. In two plays, Geneva moved the ball to the 38 and decided to attempt a 55-yard field goal with freshman Daniel Nordaas to tie the game. The kick was well short, sealing the win for the Yellow Jackets.

Perone’s afternoon didn’t get off to an auspicious start. For the second time this season, he got the nod at quarterback, having split time with senior Jake Dougherty and sophomore Tyler Srbinovich through the first three games. Early in the second quarter, Perone threw an interception to junior defensive back Jamarkus Brumskin. The next time the offense took the field, Dougherty was in at quarterback.

Although Perone was discouraged, he knew he had to get himself together in case he got the call to come back out.

“I was just angry at the situation,” Perone said. “I was angry at myself because I missed two throws in the first half that were crucial and probably would have changed how the first half went. So, I was mad at myself, I was mad at the situation, and I just got myself under control…I was ready to go.”

Geneva’s defense shut out down the Jackets in the first half, and Waynesburg went into halftime with no points. The Jackets’ defense kept the team in the game, holding Geneva’s triple-option attack to just seven points, which came on a 10-yard rush by senior Trewon Marshall with 7:12 left in the second quarter. Marshall finished the day with 157 of Geneva’s 216 yards of total offense on 32 carries. Despite the score, Smithley didn’t make a lot of changes to the offensive game plan coming into the second half.

“We needed to make some of the throws that were missed in the first half,” Smithley said. “I think if you look back on it in the first half, we left five touchdowns out there in the first half throwing the football. We didn’t make a bunch of adjustments. I think we made a couple of adjustments on offense, and then we just went out and did the same stuff. We started hitting some of those throws. That was the important thing.”

Dougherty went 3-6 for 42 yards before Perone re-entered the game towards the end of the third quarter. When Perone came back in, it took the Jackets less than two minutes to tie the game. A five-play, 42-yard drive culminated with a 27-yard touchdown pass to sophomore Cole Booth. Horne’s extra point was good, and with a little more than 13 minutes left, Waynesburg tied the game. The score remained 7-7 until Horne’s game-winning field goal.

A turning point occurred late in the third quarter when Geneva was looking to take a two-touchdown lead, having moved the ball to the Waynesburg one-yard line. On fourth down, head coach Geno DeMarco decided to leave the offense on the field and not go for a short field goal. The decision backfired. Seniors Austin Kline and Garrett Hepner stuffed Marshall at the goal line, keeping Waynesburg in the game. Hepner and senior linebacker John-Glen Davis each had 10 tackles, while junior defensive back Tyler Smith led the way with 12 tackles.

“[The goal line stand] changed the whole game,” Smithley said. “It allowed us to win this football game. That’s a credit to [defensive coordinator Scott Venick] and our defense. Our guys, they play so hard, and that was big. That was really big for us.”

After Geneva ran for 326 yards in last week’s 27-14 win over Thiel, the Jackets’ defense held its own against the triple option. Waynesburg limited the Golden Tornados to 208 yards rushing and outgained Geneva 287-216 in total offense.

Offensively, junior Chad Walker led the way on the ground for the Jackets, picking up 75 yards on 21 carries, while in the air, Perone went 14-23 for 175 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Sophomore wideout JaWuan Jones had his best game of the season, catching five passes for 96 yards.

Saturday’s game was similar to the last time Waynesburg beat Geneva, which was in 2016 when the Jackets held off the triple option and grinded out a 10-9 win. For Smithley, who was Waynesburg’s offensive coordinator in 2016, the biggest difference in the two wins was the youth in this year’s team compared to two years ago.

“I think this Waynesburg football team is a lot younger than [the 2016] Waynesburg football team was,” said Smithley. “So, it means even that much more to get some success for these young guys and to them to taste what it’s like to win when you win a football game here at Waynesburg.”

Now that the first win is out of the way, Perone feels that the team now knows what it takes to get a positive result.

“The taste of a win is going to sit in everybody’s mouth,” Perone said.  “We know what that feels like now and I think we know what it takes to practice. All I’m going to say is 2-3 would look a lot better than 1-4.”