It’s been a difficult start to the 2019 season for the Waynesburg women’s soccer team, and Saturday afternoon resulted in another close loss to the Mount Aloysius Mounties, 1-0.
The lone goal of the match came in the first half for the Mounties around the 6:30 mark from Katie Mirance. This would prove to hold for the rest of the day due to strong defensive play on both sides of the ball.
Head coach Laura Heethuis said the goal was a tough one to allow as it deflected off of a Jacket defender before going into the net.
“We gave up a lone goal and that’s never fun to do,” Heethuis said. “They did a good job of getting the attack and putting the ball in dangerous areas. The girl played the ball across and it hit off our defender and [went] into the net.”
Freshman Autumn Blair, a Penn Hills native, got the nod in goal for the Jackets and made her mark playing all 90 minutes, allowing the lone Mounties goal, making four saves on the six Mt. Aloysius shots on goal. Heethuis spoke highly of Blair’s performance through the early part of the season.
“She’s doing very well for us,” Heethuis said. She’s shown that she is confident coming out on breakaways. “She’s owning her box and is not afraid to go punch things out for corner kicks and crosses, and she’s doing well making some reactionary saves. She’s shown a lot of confidence at a young age is getting a lot of minutes and experience.”
Despite not finding the back of the net, Waynesburg posted 13 shots, with six of them coming on goal. Heethuis said moving attackers forward was key to applying more pressure on the Mounties in the second half.
“We started out a little slow, the first half was rough and we’re against the wind, so it was hard to get in the attack a little bit,” Heethuis said. “The second half we started to take it to them, when we can attack with numbers our forwards are going to be better and that showed especially in the second half.”
Every game this season has been a one goal difference with the exception of one for the women this year. For Heethuis, the Jackets need to “own the midfield” in order to make those changes moving into this week.
“We got beat the first half there against Mount [Aloysius] and they ran us and were able to run the play. If we own that midfield, we’ll be able to play some of these teams off the pitch a little bit.”
Waynesburg will be back in action 3 p.m. Wednesday when it takes on the Franciscan Barons in Steubenville, Ohio in another non-conference match-up. Meanwhile, Presidents’ Athletic Conference play draws closer, as the Jackets first conference tilt is set for Saturday, Sept. 28 against Chatham.