PAC Westminster fails in pursuit of title

Waynesburg claimed the title outright with a 34-20 victory over the Titans.
By BILL ALBRIGHT
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
WAYNESBURG, Pa. -- The Westminster football team was hoping for a win over Waynesburg to earn a share of the President's Athletic Conference championship.
Those hopes were dashed, however, as the Titans fell behind early and couldn't catch up to the Yellow Jackets, 34-20, as Waynesburg claimed the outright PAC title.
Westminster (3-2) finishes third in conference play behind perennial champion Washington & amp; Jefferson (4-1).
"We were happy to be in this game after starting [the season] 0-2," Westminster (5-5, 3-2 PAC) coach Jerry Schmitt said. "The kids played hard all year and we all appreciate having had the opportunity to be here and playing for the championship against a real good football team."
First-half edge
The Yellow Jackets (9-1, 5-0) built a 10-0 lead on a 37-yard field goal by Ben Popson and Ryan Abel's 13-yard TD run. But a flea-flicker resulted in a 59-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Joe Getsy to wide out Brian Ekis to cut the Waynesburg lead to 10-7.
If the score by Ekis gave the Titans some momentum, the Jackets only needed 14 seconds to get it back as Eric Daniels hauled in the kickoff at his 15, and 85 yards later, Daniels crossed the goal line for the score that would haunt the Titans for the rest of the afternoon.
"They do a great job with their special teams and I think that [the return] was a combination of an excellent play and maybe some things we didn't do so well," Schmitt said. "They have athletes who make big plays and that was the key to it.
"We were right there, but we didn't wrap and bring him down. When you don't do those things on a great athlete, it hurts you and that play was definitely a momentum swing in the game after we had just put those points on the board," Schmitt said.
The Titans had success moving the ball for much of the afternoon. Tailback Scott Froelich finished with 142 yards on 27 carries, while Getsy, although suffering a pair of interceptions that stopped Titan drives inside the red zone, threw for 215 yards and a pair of scores.
"I told the guys last week that you can take the stats and do whatever you want to with them, but the bottom line is to win the game and we didn't do that today," said Schmitt. "Moving the ball and piling up all of those stats do nothing. You still have to put the ball into the end zone."
Although they only scored seven points in the first half, the Titans dominated the line of scrimmage, both offensively and defensively.
Rushing success
But in the second half that changed as the Jackets ran the ball at will with the tandem of Abels (179) and Daniels (139) combining for 309 yards.
"They came out with a little bit of momentum and did a good job of getting after it in the second half," Schmitt said. "Although they did a good job of making some adjustments, some things opened up for us in the passing game and that is what we took advantage of."
Waynesburg coach Jeff Hand said, "I thought our line play was good on both sides of the ball in the second half. For us to be able to put together some very successful drives together says a lot about the play of our offensive line and the defensive line also stepped up as well."
As for the running of Abels and Daniels, Hand has the good fortune of watching that happen all season long.
"That is one of the reasons for our success this year is to have those guys, and although they are very young [both are freshmen], they are also very talented," Hand said. "When one goes down or is not getting it done as well as he might be, the other one steps up and gets the job done."