It has been a slow start for the Missouri Southern men’s Soccer team, which plays Rockhurst at 7 p.m. tonight in Joplin.

Since starting the season with a road loss in overtime to Texas A&M International, the team has lost four games with only three goals on the season.

“Anytime you have two teams out of your conference (Southwest Soccer Conference) in the Top 10 of the country every year I think that puts it up there as one of the power conferences,” said Head Coach Kiley Cirillo. “Much like all sports in the MIAA, we can never take a moment off.”

The Lions will need to create high expectations in order to contend in the SSC.

“We postponed practice and our coach sat us all down in a meeting and we discussed what tangible goals are we going to have for our season,” said junior midfielder Ben Pantzslaff.

The Lions will need to have more of a balanced attack when they enter conference play.

They have the defensive presence with reshirt junior goalkeeper Jon Hansen and junior defender Tony Simmons who showed a lot of defensive potential last year.

Offensively Southern needs to be more of threat to the opposition. In the last five games, the Lions have trailed their opponent in goals by period (3-14) and shots by period (47-82).

“We have the physical capability, but we need to improve on playing as a team,” Pantzslaff said. “We need to be mentally and physically together, on and off the field.

“We all need the desire to win. Coach has opened the door for us, we just have to walk through it.”

The Lions are more than capable of turning the rest of their season around.

Cirillo puts his men in the position they will need to be winners in this conference.

“We take one game at a time,” Cirillo said. “Our daily goals continue to be trust our teammates and have no regrets in anything we do.”

After Rockhurst, the Lions will go on the road until Sept. 27 when they will host Newman.