Waynesburg could sweeten season with win over W&J
It’s been a difficult season at Waynesburg University for the football team.
The Yellow Jackets have won only one game and have had difficulty on both sides of the ball.
But every year there is an opportunity to salvage some good feelings and gain a level of superiority over their big rival, Washington & Jefferson.
The two teams meet Saturday afternoon at Cameron Stadium for a 1 p.m. kickoff.
Waynesburg has a 1-8 overall record and is 1-7 in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference. W&J is 6-3, 5-3 in the conference.
“It’s a rivalry and there’s going to be fighting on both sides of the ball,” said Waynesburg senior linebacker Tyler Smith. “Right now, this is all that matters. We haven’t beaten W&J in a while. Beating them this season would mean a lot. It would make all that hard work we put in pay off because we haven’t beaten them in a while.”
W&J has dominated the “Backyard Brawl,” winning 42 of the last 46 games. The last Waynesburg victory came in 2014, a 31-28 overtime victory at Wiley Stadium. Waynesburg has not won at W&J since 1954.
Waynesburg can expect a heavy dose of running and passing from the W&J offense that is second in the PAC and features the strong arm of quarterback Jacob Adams and the 1-2 punch of running back Jordan West and E.J. Thompson.
“It’s always nice to play this game,” said West, a Washington High School graduate and one of 12 seniors. This is my fourth time, and they always play us tough.”
The Presidents’ defense has played well this season, ranking third in NCAA Division III in turnover ratio with a plus-18 and fourth in fumbles recovered with 14.
Waynesburg made a midseason quarterback switch, inserting Mason Schrenker for Tyler Perone. Schrenker has completed 53 percent of his passes for 844 yards and five touchdowns. Last week, he engineered two scoring drives in the fourth quarter in a 27-24 loss to conference champion Case Western Reserve.
“I hurt for the seniors because they work so hard and we haven’t gotten the results we wanted,” said Waynesburg head coach Chris Smithley, who was an assistant coach at W&J.
“The big thing is we want to finish this season the right way. It’s a big game for us and it’s a big game for them. We really haven’t put three phases of the game together in a given week.”
Justin Flack also emerged as the starting running back a few games into the season and has gained 690 yards and scored four touchdowns. He averages 4.5 yards per carry.
“They won only one game but I think Chris is doing a good job,” said W&J head coach Mike Sirianni. “If you look over the last three weeks, they’ve gotten better. This is a team that over the last three years has always gotten better at the end of the season and that’s the sign of a good coach.”
Tyler Smith leads a defense that has been on the field for too long the season. He has 91 tackles, 12 1/2 for losses, an interception, one forced fumble and one recovered fumble.
California at West Chester
California finishes its season with a trip to West Chester in a PSAC crossover game.
The Vulcans are 7-3 after beating Seton Hill last week and West Chester is 8-2 after routing Lock Haven.
Kickoff is 1 p.m.