While Saturday’s game against Geneva was out of reach, a shining moment came out from a freshman making their debut.

In the 3-0 loss, Grant Slutter, who came in for the usual starting keeper Zach Reed, had his first appearance of his collegiate career, and when called upon to defend the penalty shot, he answered the call.

“Penalty saves are something I’ve studied over and over,” Slutter said. “I’m glad my training took over and I was able to make that save for our team.”

Head coach Treg Lunger made the switch to Slutter after the second goal of the game rolled underneath the dive of Reed, as chaos in the box led to defensive collapse and Lunger felt it was time for a switch in net.

“Reed’s had a fair amount of time to show us where he is,” Lunger said. “What we’ve seen in the last 3 game cycles and how [Slutter] has trained, I thought it was a valid change.”

Already down 2-0, Waynesburg gave up a transitional chance to Geneva, where a collision that involved the outstretched arms of Slutter and the hard tackle of Landon Stevenson went to a five minute interview and an eventual point to the penalty spot. Stevenson was given the yellow card and Slutter was tasked with defending a third Geneva goal just seven minutes after being entered into the contest.

On the penalty, a low shot fired toward the left corner was matched equally by a fast reaction and strong right hand of Slutter to force it off net before it was cleared away to prevent a Geneva score.

“Hopefully [Slutter] continues to see an opportunity there,” Lunger said.

It was an offensively sluggish game for Waynesburg, an outcome Waynesburg has become accustomed to. Six shots were fired off in total for Waynesburg compared to Geneva’s 24, 13 of which were on net. Waynesburg’s keeper duo had their work cut out for them with 10 saves on the game, eight from Reed and the remaining pair from Slutter.

Defensively, Waynesburg sat in a low block absorbing pressure from the Geneva attack, but was broken down over the course of the first half before Geneva scored a free kick a few yards outside the 18-yard box.

In the second half, Geneva’s second came from a cross in the high left area outside the Waynesburg box that was received by a Geneva header that slipped underneath Reed, and the third came from Slutter’s missed kick coming out of his box that was finished with no Yellow Jackets in the area to clear it away.

“I think we made a lot of mistakes,” Lunger said. “That’s the reality of it, right?”

Lunger and the team have plenty to do after starting Presidents’ Athletic Conference play 0-1-1 with their 1-1 tie to Chatham last Wednesday and their most recent loss to Geneva, but the team is looking to make improvements going back on the road against Bethany.

“It’s not anything we can’t bounce back from,” Lunger said. “We sit with it and we learn from it and we move on because we have a game [against Bethany] that we have to get points out of.”

“Better communication in the back is something that we can look to improve on going forward,” Slutter said. “However, I think we are taking the right steps in that direction.”

Waynesburg continues conference play tonight at 6:30 p.m. against Bethany. The Bison currently sit at 0-5 with two losses in conference play, while the Yellow Jackets are an even 2-2-2.