Another week of contests has gone by without a win for Central Connecticut’s men’s soccer team. A shutout loss at LIU Brooklyn and a home loss to Fairleigh Dickinson leaves the team with three losses in the Northeast Conference.

The Blue Devils traveled to Brooklyn on Friday to take on LIU Brooklyn, who won their first game in Northeast Conference play. Central was unable to knock them off and achieve its first win, falling to the Blackbirds by a score of 1-0.

The lone goal on the game came in minute 64 when midfielder Daniel Quiros intercepted a CCSU pass and then found forward Romario Guscott, who put it past Blue Devil goalkeeper Carson D’Ambrosio.

The Blue Devils had one last-ditch effort when freshman Larson Richards took a shot in the 88th minute, but missed wide right, getting shut out for the second straight game.

Richards’ shot at the end of the contest was one of only five taken by the team. Freshman Panos Ravanis was once again aggressive, taking three shots, but has still yet to find the net on the season.

The Blackbirds only took seven shots on the contest, while D’Ambrosio made two saves.

The Blue Devils then returned home for just the second time this season to host Fairleigh Dickinson, who was also winless in the conference at the time. The battle for conference win number one went to the Knights, defeating CCSU by a score of 2-1.

The Knights came out strong, scoring in just the twelfth minute, Fredinho Mompremier found Ahu Obhakhan who put it past D’Ambrosio. Blue Devil defenders contested that Obhakhan was offsides, but the goal stood, and the score of 1-0 held until halftime.

Head coach Shaun Green felt his team turned the ball over too many times and called it a “slow start.”

But this would change in the second half. Following another Knights goal, the Blue Devils were on the attack, taking three shots on goal within a 1o-minute stretch, but were still unable to find the goal.

Green attributed to the spike in energy to a strong talk at the half.

“As coaches, we can’t give them any tactics, there are no formations that have ever been invented that is going to compensate for turnovers and poor passing,” Green stated. “So, if we can get that right, we can cohesively work as a team. Each individual player had to improve at that and I think they did.”

Central finally broke through and scored in the 82nd minute when freshman Jonathan Maldonado scored his first career collegiate goal on a cross from junior midfielder John Wilkins.

“It was amazing. I’m really thrilled for him,” Green said of the Wolcott native. “This kid is like ‘Johnny Rocket,’ he just keeps going and going and I was really pleased for him and his family in the stands.”

The Blue Devils nearly tied the score in the last minute when forward Panos Ravanis took a shot that was merely a few feet above the crossbar.

Following the two losses, the Blue Devils sit at 0-3 in the NEC and 0-9-1 overall. Despite still having not won a game, Green feels his team has continued to show resilience.

“I told these guys on Friday that I couldn’t be any prouder of them if we were 8-0,” Green said.

“We’ve had eight away games, it’s tough. And they have never once laid down. They’ve fought. They’ve been in every single game. Where some people would complain or look for excuses, they haven’t,” he continued.

Green says the approach from a coaching standpoint remains the same.

“We realize they are young players. If you go in as a coach and try to get in their face and get at them because they’re losing games, then you’ll lose the players,” he said. “I want the players to follow me.”