Just six minutes into Friday’s contest against Sacred Heart, Central Connecticut’s men’s soccer team found themselves at a three-goal deficit. They were unable to overcome this deficit, dropping the match by a score of 5-1.

In the first minute, redshirt freshman defender Gjergj Kllobochista, who was making his first collegiate start, tried clearing the ball to a teammate in the middle of the field. But the soft pass was picked off by Pioneer forward Segundo Navarro, who easily beat Central goalkeeper Carson D’Ambrosio.

Just three minutes later, Navarro intercepted another poor pass, notching his second goal of the match.

And just two minutes after that, Alejandro Arribas slipped a chip shot past D’Ambrosio, giving the Pioneers a 3-0 lead.

“We had a couple of inexperienced players in there that made some mistakes and we gifted them the first two goals. We put ourselves in a hole after six minutes that gave them an adrenaline boost and kicked our ego a bit,” head coach Shaun Green of his team’s early deficit.

The Blue Devils were shorthanded on defense, without freshman Julian Zass, who has a concussion. While Francesco Ambrosino started, he was forced to come out due to injury. This left the Blue Devils with just three defenders for a majority of the game.

Though the play of the Blue Devils improved throughout the half, they allowed a fourth goal on a penalty kick with just four minutes remaining.

Green believed his team simply did not work as hard as the Pioneers in the first half.

At the half, Green said he addressed his team and changed the goal for the game.

“I told them ‘you’re down a few goals, our goal right now is not to win the game, our first goal is to win the respect of our fans and the people that came to watch us,’” Green said.

“I think we did it in the second half. Anyone that watched the game noticed the difference in our attitude from the first to [the] second half,” he continued.

Another noteworthy change in the second half was the pulling of D’Ambrosio with just over 20 minutes remaining in favor of redshirt freshman Nate Howard.

Green said the plan was to pull D’Ambrosio against Robert Morris, but his services were needed in order to secure their first win. He said D’Ambrosio “knew it was going to happen down the road.”

Despite surrendering five goals, D’Ambrosio also made five saves.

Though Howard only had to make two saves late in the match, Green was pleased with what he saw.

“I think he’s a confident goalkeeper. He has a presence about him. I was really happy that he did well,” Green said.

The Blue Devils did manage to score a goal in the second half when senior forward Louis Beddouri made a penalty kick, his seventh of the season. It also marks the fourth-straight game Beddouri has found the net.

Green was also pleased with the play of freshman midfielder Larson Richards, who helped out the shorthanded defense. He also commended midfielders Aidan O’Brien and John Wilkins.

The Blue Devils will finish their season against Bryant University on Saturday at home. Green says his team needs to “finish what they started.”

“This is not a stop and start process,” Green said. “We don’t start again next year or next spring. We’re trying to build a team from the ground up. This process is continually growing. Whatever we do, we’ll carry into the spring and hopefully get better.”