Waynesburg lets 17-0 lead slip away in playoff loss to Bridgewater”It’s probably the best half of football we played all season,” Waynesburg head football coach Jeff Hand said, following the team’s Division III playoff opener against Bridgewater (Va.).
In that half, Paul D’Imperio caught seven passes for 112 yards and Waynesburg shut out the high-powered Eagle offense for a 17-0 advantage. That half, though, was the first half, when spectators and players are the only ones to remember points. During the second half, Bridgewater turned on its previously dormant offensive engine, scoring four touchdowns in the process for a down-to-the-wire 28-24 victory.
After dominating the game on both sides for that half, leaving the playoffs with a first-round loss seemed all the more unwelcome for Waynesburg. The Yellow Jackets did have a chance to make second-half amends, down by four with under a minute to play on a fourth-and-goal situation and the ball on the eight-yard line.
There would be no joy in Waynesburg, however, as Jeff Dumm’s slant pass to D’Imperio was knocked away by Steward White, taking away the last breath of an otherwise stellar 9-2 campaign.
“We played our butts off,” Brandon Doppelheuer, a senior defensive lineman, said. “I guess if you’re going to lose, it’s best to lose on a fourth-and-eight on the eight.”
Those eight yards would have been a paltry amount to overcome in the first half, as D’Imperio took advantage of man coverage en route to a career-high 153 yards on 10 catches, including a 51-yard touchdown catch that initially looked like it would only gain a few yards.
He also made a one-handed catch that he snared from behind his head for a seven-yard touchdown score to make it 17-0 before Ben Popson banged a field goal attempt off of the bottom bar to end the half. Unfortunately for Waynesburg, D’Imperio needed 11 catches, not 10, as two different Dumm pass attempts to the junior weren’t completed on the final series that would have given Waynesburg the lead.
“It was a slant call; he had tight coverage on him, I just let him make the play and they knocked it away,” Dumm said.
The junior completed the year with 295 yards passing and two touchdowns.
For Bridgewater, the change in performance was nothing new. Head coach Mike Clark admitted that the Eagles often find themselves looking to make up for a sluggish first half.
“I told the guys at halftime that we’ve been here before … and so I said let’s go out and try to respond,” Clark said. “It’s not by design (that we’re behind in the first half). There always has to be that spark.”
The Eagles’ Brandon Wakefield made up for his first-half performance, when he passed for just 24 yards, by throwing two touchdowns, including a 59-yarder to Nicholas Lehto, to revive Bridgewater’s offense.
Earlier in the half, Lehto added a 55-yard reverse play, giving Bridgewater momentum that it wouldn’t give up throughout the rest of the game.
Bridgewater’s defense came around in the second half, too, allowing only a 2-yard Eric Daniels’ rushing touchdown, and making the goal-line stand to end the game after being manhandled for the first two quarters.
“We don’t’ like to lose, so we had to hold our end of the bargain,” defensive back Anthony Hunt said. “We knew it was do-or-die.”
For Waynesburg, the season died after allowing big play after big play against Bridgewater, a NCAA playoff veteran. Doppelheuer admits that Waynesburg’s defensive intensity couldn’t make up for the Eagles’ long touchdown scores.
“They lived by the big play,” Doppelheuer said. “After each one, they started to believe. We were there to make big plays, we just didn’t make them.”