WAYNESBURG, Pa. – FUS men's soccer looked promising in its first half against Waynesburg University, but the game took a turn for the worse after a few key errors in the second half and resulted in a 5-0 loss for the Barons.

"After the last two games, tonight was a good reality check for us," head coach Ward Rogers said. "We had a really good first half and we came out very positive in the second half, but then we made a couple mistakes and just let the game get taken away from us."

The Barons began the game on a high from Saturday's win against Thiel. Quick ball movement opened the field for some offensive plays and FUS fired off six shots on goal before the half. Though unable to get past Waynesburg's goalie, a strong defensive effort enabled Franciscan to start the second half with a clean slate: 0-0.

"Then we made a horrible mistake," Rogers said.

34 seconds after halftime, a Waynesburg player took advantage of space on the left side of the field, dribbling through the FUS defense and down the byline to score. Less than ten minutes later, the same player repeated the play. This time, Franciscan goalie, freshman Tom Dosedel deflected the shot off his body, only to have the rebound put back in by another Waynesburg player.

"We just sort of started panicking after that, Rogers said. "We were chasing the ball, trying to get it up the field and we weren't really bringing it down and controlling it in the midfield. By trying to force our way back into the game we gave them another opportunity."

Though the remainder of the game was a struggle for the Barons, Rogers said the final score did not reflect the efforts of the defense or the success of the first half. Bright spots for the team included the offensive efforts of wing player Edwin de St. Aubin, midfielders Joseph Duran and John Imbimbo, and the defensive performances of center-defender Peter Herrmann and particularly Dosedel as goalie.

"There was a moment Waynesburg had free kick in the middle of first half from about 22 yards out and Tom got to the opposite post and deflected it out. It was an amazing save," Rogers said. "This was Tom's first game, and he played really well."

In spite of positive individual Baron performances, Rogers said the small mistakes determined the game's outcome.

"We were making very good defensive plays, and then giving the ball back right away. We just can't afford to not clear balls and give teams second and third chances," Rogers said. "We also can't afford to let players penetrate down the touchline the way they did," he added.

Rogers said that the team needs to eliminate these mistakes and learn to pick up the pieces when things go wrong.

"We're too good of a team to let this continually happen," Rogers said. "We have to get our composure back faster and not let the game get out of hand."

With that thought in mind Rogers said "we'll be back to training tomorrow."

The Barons will host Geneva College for their first home game of the season on Thursday, September 4 at 5pm.