The Lions suffered their second straight defeat in a 3-1 loss to the visiting Regis Pride. The loss on Saturday moves their record to 1-1-2 after the first four games.
Sophomore midfielder RJ Dziejma opened the scoring for Emerson in the 16th minute to give Emerson a lead at halftime. Regis responded in the second half with two quick strikes to take the lead in the 70th minute, and senior Jared Barroso capped off the victory with a third goal in the 90th minute.
The defeat marks the second loss for the Lions this season, coming off a 3-0 loss to Trinity on Wednesday.
“I think it’s a wake up call more than anything,” junior goalkeeper David Kemp said. “We came into it thinking it was one of the easier games and we showed we can’t do that against any opponent and that we need to step everything up another level.”
The Lions have conceded six goals in their last two games, and eight in their first four games. Goalkeeper coach Colin Connolly defended his players but hopes to bounce back and prevent future defensive struggles.
“I thought our back line battled hard,” Connolly said. “We’ve got to work on our composure, speed of play, and accuracy of passes. I think it was a hard fought game and we hope for a better result, but in the end, we’ll try to get better.”
Despite conceding three goals in today’s game, Kemp is not concerned about the team losing confidence going forward.
“We’re a strong group of guys,” Kemp said. “My confidence isn’t dented and I don’t think other people should be. I think we should be angry, I think we should be upset, but as far as confidence, we’re a confident group of guys, and I back us to bounce back.”
Emerson does not play a New England Women and Men’s Conference opponent until Sept. 28 against Coast Guard. Connolly hopes games against non-conference opponents will help prepare them against conference level teams.
“We try to schedule teams that emulate a little bit of the NEWMAC, they have some technical players there at Regis,” Connolly said. “We can play top teams, top battles, it’s one of the hardest conferences in the country, so you can’t really take days off in outer-conference games.”
Head coach Bryan Harkin declined a post-game interview.
The Lions are back in action Tuesday, Sept. 10 at 7 p.m. for an away game at the University of Massachusetts in Boston.
