The Waynesburg University men’s soccer team had a unique start to its Presidents’ Athletic Conference schedule, tying the first two conference games of the season. The Jackets traveled to Bethany Saturday, looking to break the string of ties, but the game once again came down to the wire, but this time, the game ended with Waynesburg on the losing side. 

The game started off relatively slow. There was one shot in the first 10 minutes  minutes, and it was from Waynesburg’s Cam Sutherland. Bethany didn’t register a shot until registering back to back shots in the 14th minute.  In the 14th minute they registered back to back shots. The second of those shots went into the net for the game’s first goal.

Ramiro Veiga scored the goal for Bethany, his second of the season.

The Jackets dominated the next 26 minutes of the game. Waynesburg  registered seven shots while Bethany didn’t have any during that time frame. The seventh shot was a goal scored in the 41st minute by senior midfielder, Nate Biondi. This goal tied the game at one a piece.

From that point on, Waynesburg dominated the rest of regulation. The Jackets tallied five shots and the Bison didn’t have any. Unfortunately for the Jackets, they could not score a goal despite the opportunities. This sent the Jackets into overtime for a third consecutive time in PAC play.

“Sometimes we settled for shots tonight that we just aren’t going to score on,” senior midfielder Justin Buberl said. “That goalie [Torben Grether] was like 6’4 or 6’5. He’s a very good goalie.”

The first overtime period was much of the same for the Jackets as they outshot the Bison by four. Neither team could score in the first overtime and the game was sent into a second overtime period.

Waynesburg had three shots in the second overtime period, and Bethany had one. Unfortunately for the Jackets, Bethany’s lone shot went in for the game winning goal. The goal was scored by John Lee for his second goal of the season.

Waynesburg’s head coach Brad Heethuis said there are some different ways that his team could have capitalized on the number of scoring opportunities that they created.

“It comes down to decision making,” Heethuis said. “When to pass, when to shoot. Then when we get in front of goal, we need a little bit more composure.”

This was the third straight game for Waynesburg that has went into double overtime. The Jackets tied the first two and lost this one against Bethany.  Buberl spoke about how the team can avoid overtime moving forward.

“Just putting away our chances,” Buberl said. “We had a lot of chances… We just have to put them away and we’re not doing that right now.”

The Jackets have a chance to finally get their first PAC win of the season when they play Washington and Jefferson at 6 p.m.Wednesday.

Heethuis had some words of encouragement for his team moving forward.

“The message is continuing to work,” Heethuis said. “We’ve been in every game and we’ve been in positions to win every game. We haven’t gotten that done yet, but it will come.”