WAYNESBURG, Pa. – For the first time in nine years, the Waynesburg University football team had a chance to clinch the outright Presidents’ Athletic Conference (PAC) title when it hosted Washington & Jefferson on Saturday for senior day.
The 9-0 Yellow Jackets had already clinched a share of the 2012 PAC title with a 7-0 conference record, but needed a victory over the Presidents to grab the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division III national tournament. Unfortunately, an inspired, efficient W&J team arrived at John F. Wiley Stadium and denied the Jackets their ultimate goal by downing the home team 31-14. With the win, the 8-2 Presidents (7-1 in PAC play) will head to the NCAA tournament, while Waynesburg will wait to see if they get an at-large bid to the event.
W&J’s fast-paced passing game established itself on its first possession of the game, which lasted 11 plays and resulted in a President touchdown. Junior quarterback Matt Bliss hit on all seven attempts in that possession, including a 26-yard touchdown strike.
After going three-and-out on its opening drive, the Jacket offense rebounded with a scoring possession of its own to tie the game up at 7-7. Waynesburg took over possession at its own 33-yard line and went on a marathon 14-play drive that ended with junior running back Bertrand Ngampa scoring from five yards out to cut the deficit to 7-6. Junior Alex Henry tacked on the extra point to tie the game with 2:35 left to play in the first quarter.
Following the score, the Jacket defense forced a three-and-out and gave the ball right back to the offense with a chance to take an early lead and grab momentum from W&J. Unfortunately, Waynesburg punted the ball right back to the opposition and the Presidents went on a 16-play, 73-yard possession that gave W&J a lead they never relinquished.
After the visitors built their lead up to 21-7 in the second half, Waynesburg senior Christian Jackson injected one last shot of energy into his team. Still trailing by 14 with 5:55 left to play in the third quarter, the Jacket defense forced the Presidents to punt, which Jackson fielded at the W&J 45-yard line. The shifty wide receiver darted through several tackles in the middle of the field and finally broke free for his first special teams touchdown of the year. Another Henry extra point pulled his team to within seven points of the opposition (21-14) with just under 21 minutes to play.
Unfortunately, W&J’s defense shut down the Waynesburg attack for the remainder of the afternoon and the President offense tacked on six more points on the drive following Jackson’s touchdown return. A fourth-quarter field goal put the finishing touches on the Washington & Jefferson win.
Though it game in a loss, Ngampa put together another fine effort out of the backfield, going for a game-high 144 yards and a score on 22 carries. It was his fourth-straight 100-plus yard rushing effort. Sophomore starting quarterback Carter Hill completed 16-of-29 pass attempts for 141 yards and an interception, while senior tight end Adam Moses snagged a team-high five catches for 47 yards. Though Jackson managed just four catches for 26 yards on offense, he had a big day on special teams, averaging 13.8 yards on five punt returns and 28.6 yards on five kickoff returns.
The Waynesburg defense was led by junior defensive end Brandon Fedorka, who piled up a team-high 10 tackles, seven of which were solo stops. Fedorka also recorded 2.5 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks.
With the regular season wrapped up, Waynesburg must now wait to see what its postseason plans will be. There is still an outside chance of the Jackets picking up an at-large bid for the Division III tournament. Should the Jackets not qualify for the national event, they could also participate in an Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) bowl game, which they did in 2011. The Yellow Jackets fell to Widener in last year’s ECAC South Atlantic Bowl.
The NCAA Division III selection show will be webcast live tomorrow at 6 p.m. on NCAA.com. To view the webcast, click here. The ECAC will release its bowl selections on Monday afternoon.
NOTE: There were an estimated 6,000 fans at John F. Wiley Stadium to view Saturday’s game, which is a record for the Yellow Jackets’ home facility.
