Tanner Cyprowski 

The Waynesburg University women’s soccer team trailed La Roche 1-0 after a tight first half  first half in Tuesday’s non-conference battle.

La Roche doubled its lead with a goal from Piper Claypool in the 47th minute. Soon after Claypool’s goal, Waynesburg responded with two unanswered goals early in the second half.

However, the Jacket’s comeback effort wasn’t enough as they conceded the third and final goal to Ashley Mineard in the 81st minute, sealing their second loss of the season. 

Waynesburg found themselves trailing 1-0 in the 30th minute and carried that deficit into halftime. During the break head  Laura Heethius told her team they would have to ‘dig deeper.’

 “[I] put it up to the team to dig deep and see what kind of team they’re going to be this year,” Heethuis said. 

After the 47th minute, La Roche’s lead increased to 2-0. Waynesburg midfielder Jessica Silbaugh scored her second career goal, just 29 seconds later off an assist from senior Teagan Jenner,giving Waynesburg its first goal of the night.

After this, Heethius wanted the team to “maintain a focused attitude.”
“[They needed to] keep their mindset and stay focused and not get too ahead of themselves,”she said.  

After some back and forth action, Jenner knotted the game up at two with a goal in the 58th minute. The Waynesburg’s defense couldn’t stop the flock of Red Hawks from scoring in the last ten minutes and its offense couldn’t put up another goal, leading the Jackets [1-2] to their second loss of the young season. 

Freshman goalkeeper Autumn Blair started her second game of the year and saved all three shots she faced but was pulled in the 17th minute because of an unexpected bee sting.

Emma Burns replaced Blair in net and gave up three goals on six shots she faced.

Waynesburg was outshot in the game 9-5 and only just two corner kicks to La Roche’s five.

Reflecting on the loss, Heethius stressed that the team “needs to play a full 90 minutes of soccer, not just pieces of it.”

She also told the team to continue to work hard in practice in order to prepare for conference play, which begins with a game at Chatham Sept. 28

The Jackets will play their fourth straight road game to open the 2019 season Saturday, Sept. 7 against the Marietta Pioneers in Marietta, Ohio. Kickoff is scheduled for 4 p.m.