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Football Ekes Out Win Over Last-Place Grove City

By Kyle Dawson assistant Sports Editor 6 min read
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A battle of two winless Presidents’ Athletic Conference teams took place in Grove City, Pennsylvania, Saturday, Oct. 1.

The PAC football matchup pitted the host, Grove City College Wolverines, against the Waynesburg University Yellow Jackets.

During the course of Saturday’s contest, the Jackets made a quarterback change.

Despite that change, Waynesburg came out with its first win of the 2016 campaign, pushing Grove City’s losing streak to 25 games.

For the first time in the 2016 season, the Jackets scored the first points of a game with a 9-yard touchdown pass from redshirt freshman quarterback Tyler Perone, playing in his second start, to senior Kevin Barnes Jr. for the duo’s second touchdown connection in as many games. The drive was set up by a defensive stop and 30-yard punt return by freshman Mike Krenn. The Jacket offense only had to march 20 yards for the first score.

Freshman Aaron Jenkins quarterbacked the Jacket offense in the second half after Waynesburg took a 7-0 lead into the intermission and scored the go-ahead touchdown after Grove City took a 10-7 lead in the third quarter.

Jenkins ran for 61 yards on eight carries and found Barnes for a 43-yard reception on the Jackets’ fourth quarter, game-winning scoring drive.

The Waynesburg defense stymied the Grove City offense with another strong effort from its front seven. After rushing for 236 yards in Week Four, Grove City running back Wesley Schools was limited to 3.3 yards per carry on his 108-yard rushing day.

The Jackets also sacked Grove City’s passer eight times, with junior defensive end Brad Grinnen registering three.

Two keys to the win on Saturday are a fast start by the offense and important plays on defense.

Big Defensive Plays

Shepas said the defense has been the strength thus far of the Jackets.

It was no different in the win at Grove City for the Jackets, as the defense piled up eight sacks and held Grove City to 4-19 on third downs.

But a few big plays were made, two of which being turnovers.

As the first half time began to expire and on a second-and-goal from the Waynesburg 7-yard line, Grove City’s freshman quarterback Brett Laffoon turned and handed the ball to Schools.

Sophomore cornerback Justin Willkow punched out the ball, and it was recovered by junior safety Christian Breisinger and Waynesburg took over, not allowing the Wolverines to tie things up late in the second.

“I think [Willkow’s] on schedule to be the player we thought he could be,” said Shepas. “When guys are expected to be good players, you expect them to make those plays. The kid is a freak athlete, and I’m happy with the way he’s playing.”

The Jacket defense added an interception from senior cornerback Zach Sniadach in the second half, derailing a Grove City drive.

Other defenders stuck out to Shepas as well, including freshman cornerback Brennen Sefick.

There was a play in the first half where Waynesburg was offsides, giving Grove City a free play, which Sefick had to defend through.

“He is defending the free play, and they took a shot,” said Shepas. “He looked back for the ball, got in the guy’s face and knocked it away. Those aren’t fluke plays.”

Shepas said the defense was able to overcome Grove City’s offense trying to take the defense out of its blitz packages.

“We still got to [Laffoon] eight times, and we got some solid play from Sefick and [freshman cornerback] Deondre Marable,” Shepas said.

Fast Start

In Waynesburg’s first four games prior to the win at Grove City, the team, more specifically the offense, didn’t get out to a fast start.

It was something head coach Rick Shepas highlighted over the course of those four weeks as one contributor to a 0-4 record and an 0-2 mark in PAC play.

All that talk saw a change Saturday.

After the Wolverines elected to defer to the second half, Waynesburg received the opening kickoff.

Right on cue, freshman Ta’Vaughn Johnson returned the kick 34 yards to the Waynesburg 45-yard line.

On the first two plays from scrimmage, freshman running back Whitney White, who came in averaging three yards per carry, broke off runs of nine and eight yards, respectively.

The two runs put Waynesburg in Grove City territory for a first down, on which Perone threw a short screen pass to Johnson, who took it 27 yards to the Grove City 11-yard line.

Waynesburg ultimately failed on a fourth down pass to senior wide receiver Tim Cooper that fell incomplete in the end zone, but Shepas was happy to see the quick start.

“We challenge those guys to do that,” said Shepas. “Whitney [White] had a great first half. We wanted to spread the ball around. We wanted to get the ball to Johnson a bit more. If our communication is better, who knows how much more we could’ve got.”

The second drive started with ideal field position, as freshman Mike Krenn returned a Grove City punt 30 yards to the Wolverine 30-yard line, on top of a penalty on the play against the Wolverines to put the ball at the 20-yard line for first down.

A couple of completions from Perone to senior Kevin Barnes Jr., a few other plays and a 12-yard catch by senior wide receiver Joe Malta later, and Waynesburg punched it in to kick off the scoring with a touchdown pass from Perone to Barnes for nine yards.

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Shepas highlighted Krenn and the special teams units on returns with a good share of the credit for the win as well, citing the returns of Krenn and his ability to return punts as “one of the best since I’ve been here,” according to Shepas.

Moving forward, the Jackets will face a test in the form of the triple option of the Geneva College Golden Tornadoes.

Shepas said the Jacket defense will play to Geneva’s desire to make themselves one-dimensional.

Kickoff Saturday is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. The game will also serve as the Homecoming game at John F. Wiley Stadium.

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