The Waynesburg Yellow Jackets women’s soccer team shutout the La Roche Redhawks, 8-0, to advance to 3-0 on the year. This makes back-to-back shutout wins for the Yellow Jackets.

“We pride ourselves on clean sheets, I like telling our team we are hunting for goose eggs up on that board,” head coach George DeAugustino said.

Waynesburg traveled to La Roche last year and defeated the Redhawks 2-1.

“We learned from last year. Our graduate assistant, Kayla Jenkins, came up with a good scouting report this week,” DeAugustino said.

This is the best start for the Yellow Jackets for Coach DeAugustino since he became head coach in the summer of 2021. The last time Waynesburg started the season 3-0 was in 2018.

“We really want to attack from the wide areas and just try to play to our strengths,” DeAugustino said. “Just try to wear them down, use our depth as an advantage through the course of the 90 minutes.”

Sophomore forward Amanda Pepe wasted no time and got the offense rolling in the 6th minute with a shot into the bottom right corner. Miracle Hershey’s assist, her first of the year, came from the left side of the pitch to Pepe, for her first goal of the year, to make it a 1-0 game. 

“Pepe got on the board for the first time this season and it’s just been fun to watch,” DeAugustino said.

Senior captain Reagan Mittendorf scored her second goal of the year to make it 2-0 in the 22nd minute, assisted by Pepe, on a shot that bounced off the fingertips of the goalie’s glove. 

Mittendorf came into this fall year with a different mindset. 

“I just have more confidence this year, I don’t want to let any of the younger players down. It really just helped motivate me this year,” Mittendorf said.

In the 39th minute, sophomore forward Alex Delaney made the score 3-0 on a shot to the bottom left corner of the goal. Gracie Smith passed the ball to Delaney from beyond midfield for Smith’s first assist of the year. 

“It’s been awesome to see us bury our chances. Delaney came off the bench last night and scored a massive goal for us,” DeAugustino said.

Going into halftime, La Roche did not have any corner kicks or shots.

Julz Mohrbacher, the reigning PAC Offensive Player of the Week, advanced the score to 4-0 in the 52nd minute on a header that came from a corner kick by Mittendorf. 

“We know Julz is our best header, so that’s our goal with our corner kicks is to go to her,” Mittendorf said

Then a minute later, junior forward Hailey Gilchrest fired a strong shot past the goalkeeper to make the game 5-0. Mohrbacher earned the assist, her first of the year. 

Mittendorf scored her second goal of the game, that was tapped off of a few La Roche defenders and into the goal to put Waynesburg up, 6-0.

When it comes to playing La Roche, Mittendorf knows how to play them. Back in 2023, Mittendorf scored two goals and had an assist against La Roche. 

“If there’s one thing I like about being a midfielder, it’s space. They tend to give me the room,” Mittendorf said.

Freshman Kya Huggins, in her first game, scored her first two collegiate goals. Rylie Alexander assisted Huggins on the first goal that was kicked left of the goalie to make it 7-0 in the 73rd minute. Freshman Jessi Jury assisted on the Huggins goal in the 85th minute on a shot that went left of the goalkeeper to make the score 8-0.

“He [Coach DeAugustino] talked to me before going in, which calmed me,” Huggins said. “I knew I had to connect with our outside back. It was me and the goalie, I said to myself ‘I have to do this’ and it was a really good feeling seeing it hit the back of the net.”  

Waynesburg had every corner kick on the night with 12 and left La Roche with no shots on goal. At least one player from each class scored a goal in yesterday’s win.

“I was pleasantly surprised by that statistic, I think it comes down to possession and us keeping possession and continuing to play on the front foot and attack,” DeAugustino said. “We did a great job of keeping the ball and going forward and didn’t let them have many opportunities.”

Looking ahead to their next game, DeAugustino knows they have room to grow and knows they need to work on the fine details. 

“It doesn’t matter what the results were on day one, we have to bring the energy and set the tone from the beginning,”  DeAugustino said.

The Yellow Jackets will take on Keystone College at home on Sept. 6, who come into Saturday 0-1 after suffering a 13-0 loss against Alfred State College on Aug. 30. This is the first time in school history these two teams will face each other in women’s soccer.