By: Tyler Zeman 

For the Yellow Jacket

 

The Waynesburg University men’s soccer team opened its season with a 3-2 double overtime loss Saturday to Allegheny College. 

It was the first look at this yellow jacket squad under new head coach Treg Lunger who was very eager to get out there. 

“It’s always an exciting time to be on the touch line,” Lunger said. “Extra exciting for me though; taking charge of a new program, especially considering the landscape college soccer has been in over the past 18 months.” 

After Waynesburg’s first match last week against Lancaster Bible College was cancelled due to rain Allegheny became the new season opener. 

It wasn’t the ideal start though for the Yellow Jackets as they went down early after a first half goal and then a quick second half goal by Allegheny. The first coming from Allegheny Senior Forward Nick Talian followed by the second from Gators Sophomore Gunnar Brettell who notched his first collegiate goal. 

However with a few adjustments from the new Waynesburg head coach the Yellow Jackets were able to create a second half comeback starting with a goal from Senior Daniel Hott followed up by a debut goal from Freshman Connor Jacobs to force overtime. 

Ultimately it wasn’t enough though from the Waynesburg squad as just a few minutes into the second overtime Allegheny’s Darius Googe found the back of the net and secured the win for the Gators. 

Despite the loss coach Lunger found many positives to take away from the match.

“We had to solve some good problems that we will see from other teams in the future,” Lunger said. “Finding a way to fight back being down 2-0 is a great response.” 

With every new head coach comes a new culture and this time is no different. Lunger was also pleased to see his team show some of that through the comeback 

“We’re constantly asking our team to have the focus be on the guys next to them rather than on themselves,” Lunger Said. “I think this was evident in the effort we made to get back into the game and force a very tough overtime result.” 

As always there are things the team looks to change heading into their next match “Going down early on the road is never fun, we need to make better adjustments so we aren’t as flat,” Lunger said.

Lunger also acknowledged the team needs to be better prepared for road games considering they are on the road 8 more times this season including three straight road games in mid-September. 

Lunger will have some time though to prepare his team for their next road game as the Jackets have their first home game of the season coming up Wednesday Sep.8  at 7pm against La Roche University.