The Waynesburg University Women’s Soccer team defended John F. Wiley Stadium with a 2-1 win against Chatham University last night. The Yellow Jackets are in second place in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference with a 5-0-2 record with 17 points.

“I hope we can keep the momentum up,” junior captain Waverly Lorne said. “I think the team is riding a big high right now. I hope we can riding it for the rest of the regular season and into the playoffs.”

This game featured the reigning offensive player of the week, Julz Mohrbacher for Waynesburg, and defensive player, Goalkeeper of the Week, Sarah Vescio for Chatham.

The Yellow Jackets struck first in the 30th minute, when Miracle Hershey passed the ball to Amanda Pepe, who sent a shot over the head of the goalkeeper Kyanni Escudero for a 1-0 lead. Pepe is now at 10 goals on the year and fourth in the conference in points with 25.

“Pepe is playing excellent soccer,” head coach George DeAugustino said. “She had a great finish to the goal set up by Miracle.”

In the 42nd minute, Mohrbacher sent the ball to the back of the net to give the Yellow Jackets a 2-0 lead heading into the half. This was Hershey’s second assist of the game.

“Another great set up play by Miracle,” DeAugustino said. “Julz is playing really great.”

Mohrbacher leads the PAC in goals with 14 and points with 33.

At the half, The Yellow Jackets recorded all corner kicks with four. For Waynesburg, five out of the 12 shots on goal. Alexus Greenlief had seven saves. For Chatham, seven of its nine shots were on goal. Escudero had three saves.

Ainsley Smith, in the 57th minute, connected with Halle Marsalis for the assist and gave the Cougars their lone goal of the night and made the score 2-1.

The rest of the game was defense-heavy for the Yellow Jackets to keep the lead.

“Our goal was getting all four of our defenders behind the ball and behind the girl attacking,” Lorne said. “If they beat one person, we got three other people on them.”

Waynesburg outshot Chatham 19-18 and Greenlief had nine saves.

“I think collectively we played really great,” sophomore forward Amanda Pepe said. “Theres definitely some things that we can work out, but we will work on it in practice. We will come back stronger for Franciscan.”

Waynesburg will be at Franciscan University of Steubenville on Saturday, Oct. 18, kickoff is at 7 p.m. The Yellow Jackets had a 1-1 tie against the Barons last year.