Nov 1, 2014 3 min read

Now Waynesburg Unversity’s football team gets a chance to stop Domonique Hayden and Thomas More.

Hayden, the reigning Player of the Year in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference, is fourth in NCAA Division III in rushing yardage with 1,109 and is second behind Washington & Jeffferson’s Ryan Ruffing in scoring with 20 touchdowns and 120 points.

Hayden has helped the Saints (5-1, 6-2) to a tie for second place in the PAC with Waynesburg (5-1, 7-1). With a win against Thomas More and then W&J in the regular-season finale Nov. 15, the Yellow Jackets will earn the conference title and an automatic bid to the NCAA playoffs.

“This is the spot we wanted to be in,” said Waynesburg nose tackle Zach Machuga. “Everything is on the table for this game.”

Thomas More is coming off a 64-7 victory over Grove City in a game in which Hayden rushed for 174 yards on 21 carries and scored five touchdowns.

“He always seems to be falling forward,” said Waynesburg linebacker John Sikora. “He makes a lot of yards after contact. That’s why we have to gang-tackle him. He’s such a great and he’s going to make plays. They also have explosive wide receivers and the quarterback has a good arm.”

Machuga leads the Yellow Jackets with 10 tackles behind the line of scrimmage. If he significantly adds to those totals, it could turn into a good day for Waynesburg.

“This will be the best offensive line we played,” said Machuga. “There can’t be any arm tackles; 11 hats have to be there.”

Junior quarterback Jensen Gebhardt has competed 57 percent of his passes for 1,778 yards and 14 touchdowns. But he’s also thrown eight interceptions.

Junior Goose Cohom has caught 39 pases for 714 yards and eight touchdowns.

Meanwhile, Carter Hill, Waynesburg standout quarterback, will try to exploit the Saints’ secondary in much the way W&J did earlier in the season. Hill needs 50 yards to reach 2,000 passing and has 23 touchdowns.

Still, it will be how well the Yellow Jakcets defense controls Hayden that will determine the outcome.

“The guys on this team do what they can to keep us in games,” said Sikora. “We’re in position for a meaningful game. This is why you want to play the game. We still have a chance to accomplish what we wanted at the beginning of the season.”

Washington & Jefferson can come one step closer to the Presidents’ Athletic Conference championship and tailback Ryan Ruffing can take another step toward breaking a 22-year-old scoring record.

Coming off an uneven 34-24 win over Case Western Reserve, the Presidents are hoping to unleash a strong offensive attack against Geneva, which is statistically the No. 2 defense in the conference.

Kickoff is 1:30 p.m.

“They are a solid team with a good defense,” said W&J head coach Mike Sirianni.

Ruffing has 22 touchdowns this season, 10 shy of the record of 32 set by Chris Babirad in 1992. He is coming off a four-touchdown game against Case Western Reserve.

“I didn’t even know about the record,” Sirianni said. “We’re not going to break from what we’ve been doing. He’s a great player on a great offense.”

Following Geneva, W&J travels to Thiel (1-4, 2-5) and Waynesburg (5-1, 7-1) to end the regular season.