By Joe Tuscano, Staff writer

jtuscano@observer-reporter.com

WAYNESBURG - There was enough emotion in the locker room at halftime for things to fall apart. Chairs and expletives could have been thrown, heated arguments and incriminating looks could have been exchanged, and team unity could have been left in the trash bucket on the way out for the third quarter.

Washington & Jefferson College's football team was behind at halftime for the first time this season, 14-7. Worse, it was to Presidents' Athletic Conference rival Waynesburg with first place, and the automatic berth in the playoffs, on the line.

W&J quarterback Bobby Swallow, the model of consistency and poise, had been sacked five times and looked panicked at times. The Presidents' defense looked ordinary, allowing Waynesburg's freshman tailback Robert Heller 180 of his 289 yards rushing. Fullback Brendan O'Mahony fumbled the ball away at the Waynesburg one-yard line.

Instead of finger-pointing, players were pointing out ways to change strategy in the second half. Those plans produced three scores and a 22-21 victory over the Yellow Jackets in front of a near-capacity crowd of 4,050 fans at Wiley Stadium Saturday.

The win kept No. 8 W&J undefeated - 8-0 overall and 4-0 in the PAC - and put the Presidents one conference win from an automatic bid into the NCAA Division III playoffs. Waynesburg, ranked 21st, fell to 7-1 overall and 4-1 in the conference. The Yellow Jackets have a good chance for a Division III playoff berth if they win their remaining games against Geneva and Westminster.

"In the first half, we were playing uptight," said W&J head coach Mike Sirianni. "Our quarterback was uptight, our right tackle was getting killed (against defensive end Mike Czerwien), there was a lot of pressure on the kids. I just told them at halftime that you should want to play in games like this. It should be fun for you."

The message apparently got through.

"I think this win shows the type of character we have," said W&J tailback Kevin Mathews, who rushed for 115 yards on 21 carries. "Not much was said at halftime. We knew we had to play harder and better. We just weren't tough enough."

So they got tougher.

Mathews gained 85 of his 115 yards in the final 30 minutes and Swallow avoided the devastating rush of Czerwien and the rest of Waynesburg's defense long enough to pass for 142 of his 202 yards. He found Dave Ravida for a five-yard touchdown that tied the game, 14-14.

When Waynesburg regained the lead in the third quarter with a 14-yard pass from freshman quarterback Kyle Kyper to Andy Hodanich, W&J answered. Russ Chase sacked Kyper in the end zone for a safety that cut the Yellow Jackets' lead to 21-16 with 6:08 left in the third and then retook the lead with 7:29 to play when Swallow capped an 11-play drive with a one-yard quarterback sneak.

"We knew they would create problems for us," Swallow said. "(Czerwien) is fast and beat us a couple times. But that happens. We adjusted at halftime and picked it up in the second half."

A disputed fumble by Heller at the Waynesburg 11-yard line midway through the first quarter set up the first score of the game, a two-yard run by W&J tailback Curt Jones.

"It was not a fumble," Heller said. "I got tackled so I laid the ball out. The officials didn't seem to know what happened. That changed the game. If there had been replay, it would have been reversed."

The two teams combined for six fumbles in the first half and each lost one. O'Mahony's fumble at the one stopped W&J from forging a 14-0 lead.

"I actually felt we overcame a lot in the first half," said Waynesburg head coach Rick Shepas. "We dealt with some adversity. We kept jabbing, jabbing at them."

Waynesburg built its first-half lead on the running of Heller, a Ringgold graduate and the leading back in Division III. On the second play of the game, Heller reversed field for a 23-yard gain when most runners would have lost two. Midway through the second quarter, he broke an 89-yard run for a touchdown that tied the game, 7-7. Then, he gave the Yellow Jackets a 14-7 lead when he bulled over from a yard out with 4:05 left in the half.

"He's so fast and he hits the hole hard," Sirianni said. "He's just a great player. We hadn't had to battle back like that all year. We learned a lot about ourselves and Waynesburg learned a lot about their team."

Heller's 289 yards was a single-game record for Waynesburg. When he gained 23 of those yards on the ensuing series, most expected a comeback for the Yellow Jackets. They drove to W&J's 25-yard line with just over five minutes to play.

But the Yellow Jackets self-destructed on the most basic of plays: the snap from center. On first down, the snap appeared to hit a player who was in motion. Kyper fell on it for a six-yard loss. Two plays later, Kyper dropped the snap from center for a five-yard loss.

Still, Shepas decided for a field goal attempt of 45 yards. Kyle McBride had the line but the ball landed in the middle of the end zone.

Waynesburg had one more possession but Kyper was intercepted by Ryan Mullen.

"It's not a good feeling right now," Czerwien said. "It's hard to swallow a loss like this. We played our butts off for 60 minutes. We can't dwell on it. I hope we play them again (in a playoff rematch). No one wants to go 0-4 against them and that's where I'm sitting."

Hash marks

Heller's two touchdowns gave him 21 for the season, a Waynesburg record. ... W&J receiver Tom McCafferty had eight catches for 100 yards. ... The Presidents controlled the ball for 10 more minutes than Waynesburg. ... Waynesburg linebacker Dan Andreassi had a game-high 14 tackles. W&J tackle Jacob Bloomhuff had two sacks among his seven tackles.

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