After starting the season with two losses, the Waynesburg University men’s soccer team picked up its first win of the season against La Roche University, 3-1.

The starting goalie for the Yellow Jackets was junior Adam Dolan and for La Roche, senior Austin Gorman was in net. 

Going into the game, head coach Brad Heethuis wanted to play fast and through their possession.

“The game plan was that we wanted to dictate the game through our possession play,” Heethuis said. “We wanted to make the ball do the work and move it quickly.”

The first half was scoreless for the first 37 minutes of the game.

The 38th minute was when junior forward Kyle Deaner scored his first collegiate goal breaking the tie.

Only 49 seconds passed before defender Ryan Mills scored the second goal of the game, putting the Jackets ahead, 2-0. Both Yellow Jacket goals were unassisted.

After a Waynesburg penalty, senior midfielder Firas Abduljawad scored for La Roche.

At the end of the first half, Waynesburg out shot La Roche nine to four.

The next and last goal of the game came from the Jackets which was scored by junior forward Cam Sutherland, assisted by senior midfielder Nate Kummer in the 58th minute. 

The Jackets finished the game with 15 total shots, tripling the amount of LaRoche shots.

Dolan (1-2-0) got his first victory of the season stopping two shots on the night.

Gorman (0-2-0) took his second loss on the season, making seven saves on the evening. 

After a dominating performance, Heethuis still thinks the team has some room to improve. 

“We can still improve on keeping even more possession and or speed of play,” he said. “On top of that, our discipline defensively needs to get better yet.”

Only allowing five shots on goal, Heethuis had high praise for his backline. 

“[Defenders] Mills, Steven Haines, Sean McCann, Ryan McCann, Caden Keplinger and Dolan had a solid game limiting the chances La Roche had.”  

After the team’s performance Heethuis was pleased, but with it being early in the season, there is still time for the team to make strides. 

“I thought we played pretty well, certainly better than last weekend but still progress to be made,” Heethuis said. 

The Yellow Jackets will start their home schedule in their next game which is set for Sept. 9 against Wilson College. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m.