Yellow Jackets present new coach with first win
Shepas era officially begins at Waynesburg WAYNESBURG – When a new coach wins his first home game there is a sense of renewal, a fresh start and the signaling of a new era.
Rick Shepas secured his first win as a college coach when Waynesburg College downed visiting Manchester College, 28-7, at Wiley Stadium Saturday afternoon.
But this was about continuing something that’s been going on at Waynesburg for three years now: winning at home.
The Yellow Jackets (1-1) have now won 13 straight games at Wiley Stadium dating back to the 2002 season. After a late off-season coaching change and an embarrassing loss at Denison two weeks ago, it was the players that found the win most satisfying.
“I think the players needed to win more than the coaches did,” Shepas said. “They’ve been through a lot over the course of the last six months. I just wanted us to come out and play well.”
Junior running back Ryan Abels put up the best offensive numbers for the Yellow Jackets rushing 20 times for 160 yards.
“We knew we had a 12-game win streak and we didn’t want to lose that,” said Abels, who became the school’s seventh 2,000-yard career rusher during the game. “We were feeling horrible after the first loss and we should have won. Everybody was pumped for this game.”
Remnants of Waynesburg’s loss were evident on Manchester’s first drive of the game when the Spartans (1-2) were able to move efficiently on the Yellow Jacket defense. Running back Brent Ash scored from three yards out on a direct snap capping off a 34-yard, eight-play march.
“Our defense is supposed to be one of our strengths,” Shepas said. “They were able to go down and score and they go up 7-0 and we had to answer.”
Waynesburg responded overwhelmingly both defensively and offensively as the Jackets scored four unanswered touchdowns and amassed 366 yards to the Spartans’ 124 yards the rest of the game.
“I think we showed some character today,” Shepas added.
The defense forced three second-half interceptions (Waynesburg only led 14-7 at halftime) and made some crucial stops for losses.
After Waynesburg matched Manchester with a methodical eight-play touchdown drive culminating on a 1-yard run by Bryan Gust-the Yellow Jacket defense stepped up big.
Manchester drove and had first-and-10 at the Waynesburg 17. After a 15-yard sack shared by Mike Czerwien and Dan Andreassi and a personal foul, the Spartans were backed to midfield.
“They shut us down; my hats off to them,” said Manchester coach Shannon Griffith, whose team scored 69 points at Earlham a week ago. “We had missed opportunities. We had some excellent field position. We threw a couple picks and that’s a credit to Waynesburg and their defense and what they did.”
Waynesburg’s last three scores came from three different players.
Quarterback Tres Cobb, who threw for 130 yards in the game on 8-of-15 passing, plunged ahead one yard capping off a 16-play, 75-yard drive late in the second quarter.
Running backs Calvin Lee and Eric Daniels scored both of Waynesburg’s third-quarter scores from five yards out.
The Lee touchdown was set up by a spectacular 52-yard run by Abels who ran down the left side and reversed the flow before he was caught at the Manchester 8-yard line.
“I went left and decided to cut back and Dominick (Hunter) laid a great block,” Abels said. “The line had a couple of nice blocks. It was just open.”
Abels cutting against the grain allowed players like Hunter to blindside Spartan defenders.
Waynesburg was able to convert four of five scoring opportunities in the red zone as well as an efficient seven of 12 third-down opportunities.
Though Shepas, unaware of those numbers, felt his team should have scored at least three other times, he was pleased with the game’s outcome.
“I just feel good about the players that we have right now,” he added. “We came out and played a better football game than two weeks ago. That was definitely evident.”