For head women’s soccer coach Laura Heethuis, the first sign of trouble for Wednesday’s game at Franciscan took place before the ball kicked off.

When the game started, Heethuis’ concerns were realized. The Yellow Jackets fell to 2-5 on the season, losing 2-1.

“We didn’t have a good warmup,” Heethuis said. “I think that sets us into whether or not we’re going to play with an ability to connect with each other. I thought from the start [we were] a little slow, and then after that, I just thought that during the game, we made a couple errors. We had opportunities, we just didn’t finish.”

The game was scoreless in the first half, with Waynesburg getting outshot, 8-2. Freshman goalkeeper Autumn Blair kept the Jackets in the contest, saving all six shots on net she faced in the first 45 minutes.

The game opened up in the second half, and it was the Barons who broke through less than a minute in on Bella Rubino’s first goal of the season. Exactly 25 minutes later, Franciscan doubled its advantage when Sarah Cocozza found the back of the net for the first time in 2019. Waynesburg cut the deficit back to one on a goal by Meghan Briski, but it was too little, too late

In theory, it was a winnable game for Waynesburg. The Barons came in with a record of just 2-3. Heethuis knows, however, that her team can’t look down on any of its opponents. 

“We can’t expect to walk into any game and just expect to win. It’s not going to happen,” she said. “So we have to make sure that each game, we come and we’re prepared from the minute we start our warmup until the minute the game ends.”

Heethuis made a personnel change with roughly five minutes left calling on freshman Kennedy Shuck to replace Blair in goal. Heethuis felt Shuck’s promise in training sessions had earned her an opportunity in game action. 

“We’ve been just kind of talking about her getting some minutes under her belt and just getting acclimated to college a little bit,” she said. “She’s made strides since coming in. So we just felt that she had earned a few minutes to get a chance to play.”

The decision to pull Blair had nothing to do with her performance, as Heethuis is encouraged by how quickly the newcomer is coming along in goal. 

“I think her communication from the minute she set foot on campus has been great, because she’s not afraid to communicate to those who are older than her,” Heethuis said.” “She can see the entire field, and understands the game very well. She’s been doing a good job.”

Waynesburg has two more non-conference matchups before starting Presidents’ Athletic Conference play at Chatham Sept. 28.

Waynesburg’s next contest will be Saturday under the lights at John F. Wiley Stadium for an 8 p.m. kick against Baldwin Wallace. Then, the Jackets will finish the out of conference slate Tuesday at home against Pitt-Greensburg, with that game starting at 6 p.m. 

“I’m hoping we can build some confidence in the next couple weeks getting into the bulk of our conference season,” Heethuis said. “Hopefully we can get another win under our belt in one of these next two games. That’d be great for us. We have another home game coming up. We have to protect Wiley and make it a very hard place to play and compete a