As Central Connecticut’s men’s soccer team begins Northeast Conference play, they have still yet to win a match on the season, falling to Saint Francis (BKN) on Friday. But the Blue Devils were able to achieve their first result of the season earlier in the week when they tied in-state foe Hartford.

After a scoreless first half that saw both teams get off four shots, the Blue Devils struck first in minute 55 on a controversial goal. Freshman Noah Silverman struck one from the left side of the field and put it past Hawks goalie Jimmy Slayton. Hawks players insisted that Silverman’s shot hit Blue Devil freshman Panos Ravanis in the arm before reaching the goal. Despite their pleas, the referee ruled it a goal and the Blue Devils were on top 1-0.

But 10 minutes later, Hawks forward Kamer Nuhiu took a cross from Jovante Etienne and beat Blue Devil goalkeeper Carson D’Ambrosio for the goal. Neither team was able to score in the remaining minutes of regulation, sending the game into overtime.

The Hawks were unable to muster a shot in these two overtime periods, but the Blue Devils were unable to capitalize on their three, ending the game in a 1-1 draw.

After the game, head coach Shaun Green said he would have liked for his team to win, but was pleased with the result.

“Before you can get momentum going, you’ve got to start going in the right direction. We did that,” Green said. “We’re playing away from home and we came here and got a result today. That was important for us. That was critical going into our conference games next week.”

Green said his team needed to “bury a couple of chances (they) had” in order to win and that they need to get the ball to Ravanis and senior Louis Beddouri, who he called their “main strikers.”

Looking forward to their contest against Saint Francis (BKN) to open NEC play, Green felt his team could be “very competitive” and that the goal was still the same.

“Our number one goal is to finish in the top four,” he said. “We still have players who we expect to be key players that haven’t played for us yet. We haven’t had our strongest lineup out there yet due to injuries.”

The main missing asset was sophomore midfielder Sean Gannon, who has not played due to an ankle injury in the team’s season-opener a month ago.

“He (Gannon) is our play-maker, he’s our quarterback. It’s like having a team without a quarterback for a couple weeks,” Green said, expecting that Gannon should return in a week or two.

The Blue Devils then traveled to Saint Francis  on Friday afternoon to kick off NEC play, where they were blanked in a 1-0 shutout.

The lone goal in the game was scored in minute 52 when DeAndre Tomas put one past D’Ambrosio without an assist.

The Blue Devils only managed four shots on the contest compared to the Terriers eight.

Following the Hartford match, Green stressed the difficulty of playing six of seven games on the road and praising his team’s resilience.

“We know that we’ve got a young team and are competing against very good teams with sometimes five or six freshmen in our lineup,” he said. “The scoreboard may not have shown the results we wanted, but we strongly believe what we’ve been doing is right. It’s not faith without evidence. Their commitment and their faith to us improving is our strength.”

The Blue Devils will look to win their first match on Friday, Oct. 5, when they travel to LIU Brooklyn. Just their second home match will take place just two days later when they take on Fairleigh Dickinson.