WAYNESBURG, Pa. (Sept. 3) – The Waynesburg University football team opened the 2016 season under warm, sunny skies at John F. Wiley Stadium on Saturday. The Yellow Jackets battled for 60 minutes against Muskingum, but by the time the final seconds had ticked off the clock, the home team found itself on the wrong end of a 17-16 final score.
 
The loss ended the Jackets' (0-1) four-game winning streak in season openers, all of which have come against Muskingum (1-0). Waynesburg fell to the Muskies despite leading in almost every major offensive category, including passing, rushing and total offense.
 
The Jacket struggle struggled to get going throughout the majority of the first half. Muskingum built a 10-0 lead over the majority of the first 30 minutes of play, before the home team finally got rolling during its final possession of the second quarter.
 
The Jackets started the drive on the visiting 48-yard line and slowly moved the ball towards the opposing end zone. On the eighth play of the possession, sophomore quarterback Jake Dougherty dumped off a two-yard scoring pass to junior fullback Alec Watts for Waynesburg's first touchdown of the year. It was the first score of Watts' collegiate career. Speaking of firsts, sophomore kicker Garrett Guthrie was successful on his first collegiate extra point try to cut the Jacket deficit down to 10-7 with less than a minute remaining in the half.
 
Waynesburg carried its momentum from the touchdown through halftime and into the early portion of the third quarter. The Jackets took the opening kickoff of the third quarter and set up shop on offense at their own two-yard line. The Orange and Black managed to traverse the 98 yards to a second score, mostly thanks to its two biggest plays of the ball game.
 
Facing a second-and-10 situation, sophomore running back Ben Ciero ripped off a 43-yard run that moved the line of scrimmage all the way out to the Waynesburg 45. After another Ciero run moved the ball to the Jacket 48, Dougherty found junior Mitch Kendra streaking through the middle of the Muskingum defense for a 52-yard scoring play. It was Kendra's first collegiate touchdown. Another Guthrie extra point extended the home team's lead to 14-10.
 
Unfortunately, the advantage was short-lived, as Muskingum recorded the eventual game-winning touchdown during its next possession on a long scoring pass of its own. Those were the final offensive tallies of the game.
 
Though Waynesburg's offense was unable to produce any more points, its defense, which played well enough to keep victory in reach, came up with a safety with just under 11 minutes left in the game to trim the deficit down to 17-16. Junior defensive lineman Brad Grinnen blew through the Muskingum offensive line for a sack in the end zone that popped the ball free. The Jackets initially thought they had recovered for a touchdown, but settled for two points.
 
Dougherty and his offensive mates put together one last solid shot at pulling out the victory. With 4:31 showing on the fourth-quarter clock, Dougherty completed five-of-nine attempts on an 11-play drive to take his team from its own 20 to the Muskingum 15-yard-line. After back-to-back incompletions brought up a fourth down, Guthrie trotted out for his first collegiate field goal attempt. Though he put plenty of leg into the 32-yard attempt, it ricocheted off an upright and fell to the ground, setting off a raucous celebration from the Muskingum sideline.
 
The Waynesburg defensive line dominated the line of scrimmage on the afternoon. Grinnen was a one-man wrecking crew, as he wound up with four sacks in a five-tackle day and forced two fumbles to go along with his safety. Senior Zach Machuga led the Jackets with a team-high eight tackles, seven of which were solo stops. He added a sack and 3.5 tackles for loss to his day. Fellow senior Aniellio DeStefano added a fumble recovery and 1.5 sacks to his afternoon. In all, the Waynesburg defensive line piled up eight of the team's 11 tackles for loss and 6.5 of its seven total sacks.
 
Dougherty led the offense by completing 21-of-39 passes for 203 yards, two touchdowns and an interception off a deflection. Kendra put together easily his best game as a Jacket by pulling in a team-high four balls for a contest-best 112 yards and a score. Ciero led all rushers with 73 yards on just 12 carries.
 
Waynesburg will try to rebound from the frustrating defeat on Saturday, Sept. 10, when it travels to Westminster to take on the Titans in a non-conference matchup of Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) rivals. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m.