GREENVILLE, Pa. – The Thiel College football team lost a Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) game Saturday at Alumni Stadium to the Waynesburg Yellow Jackets, 24-21.

The Yellow Jackets opened scoring with 11:05 left in the first quarter when Garrett Horne made a 21-yard field goal on the opening drive of the game.

A bad snap on a punt by Waynesburg set Thiel's offense up at the Waynesburg 22-yard line later in the first quarter. Marko Bakovic (Stockholm, N.J./Wallkill Valley) threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to Josh Page (St. Petersburg, Fla./Lakewood) three plays later to give the Tomcats a 7-3 lead with 5:18 remaining in the first quarter.

On the ensuing kickoff, Shawn Allen forced returner James Jackson to fumble, and Trou Johnson (Penn Hills, Pa./Penn Hills) came up with the recovery for the Tomcats. Four plays later, Damon Smith (South Park, Pa./South Park) threw his first collegiate touchdown pass, a 39-yarder to David Pugh (Hollywood, Fla./Christopher Columbus), to increase Thiel's lead to 14-3.

Waynesburg countered with a pair of touchdown passes in the second quarter to take a 17-14 lead into the locker room at halftime. Receiver Nick Moretti threw the first touchdown pass, a five-yarder to Chad Walker. Moretti caught the second touchdown pass, a 72-yarder from Tyler Perone with a little more than four minutes remaining in the first half.

The third quarter was scoreless, but the Yellow Jackets scored on the first play of the fourth quarter on a one-yard plunge by Chad Walker to increase their lead to 10 points.

The Tomcats embarked on a 10-play, six-minute drive that ended with a five-yard touchdown pass from Bakovic to Alex Porco (Verona, Pa./Central Catholic) with 3:58 remaining in regulation.

Thiel's defense forced a three-and-out on Waynesburg's ensuing drive, setting Thiel's offense up at the Waynesburg 41-yard line with 2:12 remaining. However, the Yellow Jackets came up with a sack on first down and the Tomcats went on to throw three consecutive incomplete passes to turn the ball over on downs.

Bakovic completed 15-of-28 passes for 133 yards. He also threw two touchdown passes while Smith threw one touchdown pass. Nick Barca (Pittsburgh, Pa./Baldwin) ran for 44 yards on 13 carries.

Nine receivers caught at least one pass for the Tomcats. Charles Debose (Buffalo, N.Y./Cardinal O'Hara) led Thiel with three catches while Pugh led Thiel with 39 receiving yards. Pugh, Page and Porco each caught one touchdown pass.

Perone completed 16-of-26 passes for 185 yards and one score. Walker ran for 134 yards and scored a touchdown on 23 totes.

Moretti caught six passes, one of which was a touchdown grab, for 114 yards. He also threw a touchdown pass.

Cody Wagner (Pittsburgh, Pa./Brashear) and Matt Crawford (Greenville, Pa./Greenville) led Thiel on defense with 12 and 11 tackles, respectively.

Thiel will be back in action Saturday when they take on the Saint Vincent Bearcats on the road. The PAC game is scheduled to start at 1 p.m.