STEUBENVILLE, Oh.—The  Franciscan University men's soccer team took on La Roche College tonight, but five opposing goals in the first half left the Barons struggling to regain control and the final score was 7-1.

The Redhawks scored their first goal within the first two minutes, but Franciscan forward Brian Bobek quickly responded with an assist to Peter Herrmann, who put the ball in the net, scoring what turned out to be the Barons lone goal on the night. Several turnovers resulted in another four goals for La Roche, which put the Barons behind for the rest of the night.

In an effort to slow things down, Head coach Ward Rogers put made three defensive substitutions in the first half, which only allowed the Redhawks two more goals for the remainder of the game. 

"We got things under control, but at that point it was 5-1. That's really what I call 'chasing the game'. When you get down as far as we were down, you don't want to quit playing, you really want to try and score goals, so it's always in our nature to try to come back and we just leave ourselves vulnerable to counterattacks."

In spite of defensive struggles, Rogers said that goalkeeper Christopher McNamara had some solid position in goal and continues to progress as the season goes on. He also mentioned the effort contributed by forward Peter Herrmann until he was taken out on injury.

"Peter Herrmann was really making runs in the space and helping us release the ball up the field and helping us to hold it. When he got hurt we struggled with trying to have someone do the same kinds of runs he was doing, so we had to make some substitutions and sort of change our style of play a little bit."

Overall, Rogers said that the performance of the second half demonstrated Baron offensive improvement with several shots on goal, increased passing accuracy, and fewer turnovers. 

"We're still making turnovers in critical situations when the team puts high pressure on us, mostly at the beginning of the game. We seem to get better as the game goes on. That's a characteristic of being a young team. We don't respond well to early pressure.  If we really want to get improve we're going to have to change that habit," Rogers said.

As they look forward to their next game, the team will concentrate on ensuring that midfield play, in hopes to not leave the defense vulnerable and keep the opposing team from having turnover advantage. 

Now 0-13 and 0-5 in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference, the Barons will take on D'Youville at home on Saturday, October 13th at 3pm.