In the closing minutes of the men's soccer team's home opener against Worcester Polytechnic Institute last Wednesday, the Judges trailed 3-2 and were desperately trying to tie the score. The team had fired shot after shot on Engineer junior goalie Paul Moan but continued to come up short. In the last 10 seconds, the Judges hurried to set up a corner kick seconds after forward Matt Peabody's '13 header was deflected to the left of the goal, spurring a groan from the crowd. As the ball was put into play, the Judges had one last shot that was blocked by an Engineer defender. With that, time expired: The game was over, and the Judges' record dropped to 0-3-1. "Realistically," coach Mike Coven said, "at the end of the first half [we] should have been [ahead] four or five to zero. . We had open-net shots the entire first half, which seemed harder to miss than to actually score on. . It's inexcusable to not score those goals, and that's just a lack of composure."

The Judges were dominant in the first half, outshooting the Engineers 14-4. However, the disparity in shots did not reflect the score, as the team only led 1-0 at the half. The goal was scored by forward Alexander Farr '12 and assisted by forward Luke Teece '12. Goalie Matt Lynch '11 scooped up a ball that came into his area and rolled it out to a Brandeis player who was streaking up the field, who then passed to Teece, who set up the goal for Farr at 39 minutes, 35 seconds.

Early into the second half the Judges got a chance to extend their lead as they were given a penalty kick in the 54th minute on a WPI tripping foul inside the box.

Midfielder Joe Eisenbeis '13 took the shot but missed it by hitting the right post. The Judges had a chance to to score on the rebound as the ball bouncd right to Peabody, but his shot was stopped by Moan, ending the threat.

The team realized that having rookies like Eisenbeis and Peabody on the frontline of the offensive attack increased the potential for missed opportunities.

"The two players playing up are freshmen," midfielder Jaime Batista '10 said. "So it's no surprise that there is a sort of transitional period. Playing in college is different than playing at any other type of level. But I do have full confidence that they're going to find their stride. I just hope it's sooner rather than later."

"They're young kids; [they're going to] make those mistakes," Coven said.

Soon after, the Engineers received a penalty kick of their own which they were able to capitalize on. At 57:36, Engineers senior Tommy Zajac lined up and fired a ball that got past Lynch to tie the game at one.

"We started to get a little nervous and we lost our composure, and we committed a horrible and unnecessary foul," Coven said, "which gave them a penalty kick, and they scored on it."

Later, the Engineers capitalized on another opportunity when Zajac was given a free kick from 25 yards away at 74:45. Zajac arched a perfect shot that was just out of Lynch's reach and went into the goal in the top left corner to put WPI up 2-1. Just over two minutes later at 76:50, Engineer junior Matt Ford stole a ball in the offensive zone and was able to dribble in on a breakaway and kick it by Lynch, increasing the lead to 3-1.

"We work all week on not holding the ball in front of the goal in our defensive third of the field, and one of our freshmen held onto the ball and was very slow to get rid of it in front of our own goal," Coven said. "Someone pressured him, he lost it, and the WPI player went in on a breakaway."

The Judges did not give up, though. At 85:11, the Judges brought the ball down the field and midfielder Kyle Gross '11 put the ball up for forward Lee Russo '13, who was able to head it past Moan to cut the lead to 3-2.

The Judges would come no closer as WPI improved to 5-1 with the win.

"The first half showed that there is a combination that does work," Bautista said. "We just need to figure out how to keep it consistently throughout 90 minutes."

"That was a game that was ours to lose, and we did," Coven added. "It was very disappointing."

The Judges will look for their first win of the season tomorrow at 7 p.m. at home against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.