The Waynesburg University Men’s Soccer team began their season a couple of weeks ago and have started out hot with a 2-0 record. The Yellow Jackets are coming off a promising 10-7-2 season, finishing as the fourth seed in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference. The Jackets would dominate in the first round of the playoffs at home against Chatham, winning 4-1,before dropping the next round to Geneva 3-1.

“It’s not what the staff wants to accomplish but what the guys are feeling as well, every season is new and that’s the beauty of cup soccer,” said Head Coach, Treg Lunger regarding the new season ahead.

The Yellow Jackets started the season with a win on the road against Hiram College, shutting them out 1-0 with the sole goal coming from freshman, Sarpong Kwabiah with only eight minutes left in the match. Another asset was senior captain goalkeeper, Michael Francus with seven saves in the match. Francus discussed his plans to get involved not only on the field, but building chemistry. 

“The best part of being a captain is being able to lead guys and bring everyone together to do our best to accomplish our goals,”Francus said.

The Jackets’ most recent game against La Roche was closer, but was another win under Waynesburg’s belt. The Jackets had two more freshman add points to the board, including Noah Biser and Liam Mowbray to get the Jackets a 2-1 win.

 “Our Freshman came in and started proving themselves right away. They are a very talented class, and we are very lucky to have them,” said senior captain, Seth Massotti regarding the freshman play so far. 

Even though Waynesburg has not started conference play yet, starting the season with two non-conference gives the players confidence as the season begins 

“2-0 is just the start. We have to keep pushing every day to get better. We need to keep moving forward every day to get better for PAC play, where every game is a dog fight from start to finish,” said Connor Jacobs, a senior captain on the team.

The Jackets have four matches left before conference play, with their next non-conference match coming on Wednesday, Sept. 11, at home against Pitt-Greensburg followed bySaturday, Sept. 14, at home against Baldwin Wallace. “We are still trying to be consistent with the details over the course of 90 minutes. I think it’s fair to say we have not played a complete match yet,”Lunger said regarding non-conference play. “These four are really important for us to be intentional with our style of play and what that looks like to get the details as we move into conference play.”