The men’s soccer team lost 1-0 at home in overtime against Wesleyan University. 

This loss drops the Lions’ record to 1-4-1, but head coach Bryan Harkin said the team showed a lot of promise in its performance.

“We ask a lot of our guys and they give a lot,” Harkin said. “We asked for a response from last week and there’s nothing much more that I can ask from them in terms of effort.” 

Harkin said the Lions showed resilience but came up short in overtime.

“Obviously it’s a very tough way to lose,” Harkin said. “I’m very proud of the way that our guys competed and battled and cared about each other and that’s something we preach on a daily basis.”

Despite the result, senior forward Gavin Faucette said the team has improved.

“To come out like that after we lost horribly in the last game, I think it shows a lot,” Faucette said. “If we do that again on Saturday, in our first conference game, hopefully, it will go better.”

Junior goalkeeper David Kemp made five saves in the game.

Faucette said the Lions look to grow as a team going into conference play.

“We switched up the formation going into this game,” Faucette said. “So, I think we’ll keep up with that and we just need to possess the ball more and more chances will come.”

Harkin said the team made formational changes after the 7-1 loss against the University of Massachusetts in Boston last week. 

“Last week we took one on the chin at UMass-Boston,” Harkin said. “We’ve changed some things and the guys have bought into it and it seemed to give us a bit more of a platform to build.”

Harkin said the team will be using this game as a stepping stone toward achieving their goals during the rest of the season.

“We’ll use this [game] as a platform to build on and motivation for our conference games coming up,” Harkin said. 

The Lions are back in play on Saturday, Sept. 21 at 1 p.m. at Clark University for their first New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference game of the season.