The Waynesburg University men’s soccer team celebrated its senior day at John F. Wiley stadium Saturday, Oct. 14, with a 3-0 win over Thiel College.

For head coach Brad Heethuis, getting a win after consecutive losses to Thomas More and Bethany was a relief.

“It was massive,” Heethuis said. “Our goal is to finish in the top four and get to the postseason tournament, and if we’re going to do that, we needed a win yesterday. The guys came out, and it was big getting the goal early. I thought we played pretty well for 90 minutes.”

The Yellow Jackets opened the scoring less than 10 minutes in when sophomore midfielder Nate Kummer scored his third goal of the season on a penalty kick. The Yellow Jackets were not able to add on in the first half and took that 1-0 lead into the locker room

The Tomcats outshot the Jackets 6-5 in the first 45 minutes, while both teams had four shots on net.

In the second half, Waynesburg doubled its lead less than three minutes in. Junior defender Tyler Sisler took a pass from freshman forward Cam Sutherland and finished for his first goal of the season. Sisler wasn’t done with the scoring. Over a half-hour after his first goal, he struck again, this time assisted by junior forward Matt Hlasnick. Heethuis said that Sisler’s attacking ability is a huge part of the team, and expects the two goals to boost his confidence.

“Ty’s a very dangerous attacker for us and someone we need to be playing well up top if we want to play well as a team,” Heethuis said. “He’s done a really good job setting people up so far this year, and it was really nice to see him put two in the back of the net himself yesterday, off of two really good passes from Cam and Matt. To get him on the scoresheet in the goal column is big for his confidence as well, so going forward I expect more of the same.”

In the second half, Waynesburg outshot Thiel, 7-4 overall and 4-1 in shots on goal.

With sophomore midfielders, Justin Buberl and Nate Biondi not playing in the game, and junior goalkeeper James Snyder out for the season, the Jackets have been shorthanded recently. To Heethuis, having some key players missing means that others have to step up.

“It’s never easy being shorthanded… It’s kind of the next man up mantra in that we still want to accomplish our goals, and so the rest of the team is going to have to step up with them out for right now,” Heethuis said. “I thought we did a pretty good job against Bethany, and I thought it was a pretty good team effort yesterday as far as putting 90-minutes together, limiting Thiel’s chances to score and then having our own chances and putting three in the back of the net.”

Filling in for Snyder in goal were freshmen Adam Dolan and Daniel Brode. Dolan started Saturday’s game, stopping all six shots he faced before Brode replaced him at around the 82-minute mark and finished off with a clean sheet. For Heethuis, Dolan and Brode have held their own in place of Snyder.

“They’ve done well,” Heethuis said. “Both of them have played the three games in James’ absence and done quite well. Yesterday, we called on Adam to play and he did what he needed to. Didn’t have to face a lot of tough chances, but again, still being ready and making saves when called upon… both guys, when they’ve been called upon, they’ve shown up and done really well.”

The only senior on the men’s soccer team is defender Bryan Sontag. For Heethuis, it was meaningful for the team to honor Sontag with a win on his senior day.

“It’s special for me in that I’ve been here four years now, and Bryan is the first and only senior in that class,” Heethuis said. “He’s been with us for all four years, been through some great seasons and been through some tough seasons, and is just sticking with it… To send him off with a win on senior day is pretty special, and I’m happy that happened for him.”

Sontag will have two more chances to play at John F. Wiley stadium; Saturday, Oct. 21, against Grove City and Wednesday, Oct. 25 against Geneva. With the win, Waynesburg improves to 5-6-2 overall and 3-2 in Presidents’ Athletic Conference, while Thiel is now 4-7-1 overall and 1-2-1 in the PAC. Waynesburg’s next contest will be against Grove City (6-4-4, 2-1-1) Saturday at Wiley Stadium. Start time is scheduled for 3:30.