Wayne, Neb. – The University of Jamestown football team ran into another roadblock against the (RV) Wayne State Wildcats Saturday as they were defeated 44-7 in Northeastern Nebraska.
Jamestown moves to 0-4 and 0-3 in the Northern Sun. WSC gets up to 3-1 and 2-1 in conference play.
On the first drive from the Wildcats, WSC got a couple big passing plays to put themselves into the red zone. The Jimmies had some nice stops on rushing attempts by the home team, but still conceded a field goal as they fell behind 3-0 a few minutes in.
The Jimmies went three and out on their first drive and then the Wildcats got a touchdown out of their next drive. UJ had an effective start to their second drive, which included
Mason Whitley breaking free of a couple of tackles for a 30-yard rush to put Jamestown at the Wayne State 38. Unfortunately, though, with the Jimmies knocking on the door, an interception returned for a touchdown made the game 17-0 ten minutes into the game after the pick-six.
With the Wildcats possessing the ball at the Jamestown 26 on a 4
th-and-four,
Xander Jarosh broke up a pass near the endzone almost getting himself an interception, but the Jimmies took the turnover on downs anyway.
Other than Whitley's long run, the Jimmies never had much going offensively on the ground or in the air throughout the first half. Wayne State scored their third touchdown late in the half and headed into the locker room with a 24-0 advantage.
The Jimmies got outscored 20-0 in the third quarter, but
Simon Kieffer got some action late-game and a bit of trickery from UJ got them on the board. The drive started with Kieffer rushing twice for 17 yards. With 10:57 left in the game and the ball at the Wayne State 33, Kieffer connected with wide receiver
Ethan Hoffman right in front of the Jimmies bench. Hoffman slung the ball deep to
Gage Solano who was unaccounted for a few yards from the endzone with Solano getting the first score of the game for the Jimmies in unorthodox fashion.
Jamestown was able to get stops late in the game, setting up their final drive. Kieffer had another couple of nice rushes to get inside the Wayne State 25. After a couple of incomplete passes and less than two minutes on the clock, the Jimmies settled for a field goal, but it was tipped away as UJ failed to get their score up to double digits. Wayne State ran out the clock and went on to win 44-7.
Jacob Mattick had nine completions for 22 yards while Kieffer had two completions for 11 yards, also rushing four times for a gain of 28. Hoffman got his first-career passing touchdown and hauled in a 31-yard catch.
Gage Solano was the recipient of Hoffman's touchdown pass, also accounting for four receptions of 65 yards. Whitley led the rushing with 77 yards on 16 carries.
Alexander Rivera paced UJ in tackles with seven while Jarosh had three tackles and two pass breakups.
Total yards were 433 to 283 in favor of the Wildcats. Jamestown did have a season high in total yards as well as 144 passing yards. WSC had 21 first downs while UJ had 17. Time of possession was slightly in favor of the Jimmies at 34:29 to 25:31 and UJ was 4-for-18 on third downs while the Wildcats were 5-for-12.
Jamestown will head back to Charlotte and Gordon Hansen Stadium for their second NSIC home game of the season on Saturday, September 26 against the Concordia University St. Paul Bears at 1 p.m.
