WAYNESBORO – The thing about sports is that someone loses.
The Waynesboro Indians varsity boys’ soccer team has had their share of ‘L’s’ lately. On Saturday, the Tribe lost to South Western, 5-2, in a non-conference matchup on a sunny, hot AM at Buchanan Automotive Stadium.
The loss drops Waynesboro – which finished 2-16 a year ago – to 1-3, with a home match against Hershey coming up on Monday.
“We made some mistakes,” said first-year head coach Corey Duesler after the contest. “We definitely gave them some opportunities in dangerous area than we should have.
“I really feel like we created our own (opportunities), but we didn’t take advantage of them. We really need to capitalize on them in the future.”
Much of the first half was played in Waynesboro’s end of the field. It was just a matter of time before the bubble burst, and it did, with a long goal by Joe Maloney Maloney’s boot came from about 40 yards away from the goal. He launched it perfectly, with a low trajectory but enough height to go over the hands of Waynesboro’s goalkeeper.
It was 1-0 at halftime, and it was still anyone’s game.
That is until the Mustangs struck two more times before Waynesboro kicked in its first goal.
Maloney had another crack at the goal but missed. However, South Western continued to put the pressure on and made it 2-0 on a header from Cole Dettinger on a corner kick by Nick White.
Dettinger’s goal came at 33:27 of the second half.
Waynesboro was awarded a corner kick in the 17th minute, and Henry Benchoff’s attempt sailed wide of the target.
A minute later, Dettinger scored his second goal to increase the lead to 3-0.
The Indians finally got on the board with 20:55 remaining in the match. Will Boltz got the goal with the assist from Matthius Walters.
It didn’t take long for the Mustangs to get on the board. It came after Waynesboro had another scoring chance on a free kick. Then, Maloney scored his second goal on a sharp-angle shot to make it 4-1.
South Western made it virtually impossible for a Tribe rally when Alex Luppinaci scored on a point-blank shot in front of the Waynesboro goal. The goal came with 10:49 to play.
The Indians finished the scoring with four minutes remaining as Jake Brook scored with an assist from Tony Cannon.
Duesler, who is assisted by his father, Rick Duesler, will keep working to bring more offense and defense to the team.
“It’s new, we’re learning; we’re all learning together,” said Duesler of his promotion to head coach. “I’ve been part of it for a long time. I thought I could help get us where we need to go. I’m focusing on development, and I think just trying to work with these guys at a higher skill level.”
Duesler replaced Brian Stum who coached the Indians for 10 seasons.
