The Missouri Southern men’s soccer team has had a tough road to hope thus far in the season.

The soccer team opened up the season with a six game loosing streak, and that’s something many are attributing to inexperience.

“They aren’t a very experienced team, but coach Cirillo will turn it around,” said Dawson Driscoll, head men’s soccer coach, University of Tampa who defeated the Lions, 4-0. “He came into a tough situation, but he’ll get them headed in the right direction.”

It could be said that this is a season for learning, with a first year head coach, and a team with 13 underclassmen.

“I think that every thing in life is a learning experience,” said head men’s soccer coach Kiley Cirillo.

“To be where I’m at my age, to be at the division two level already as a head coach, you quickly realize how much you don’t know about the game.”

Even learning experiences can have their rough spots.

“When you’re 0-6 it doesn’t look like anything has improved until you get that win,” Cirillo said.

“The things that have improved have been the relationships between the players. The things that haven’t improved, is when you loose six in a row, the motivation goes down.”

Cirillo believes that the Lions “improve every time that they go out and touch the ball,” it’s just a matter of putting it all together.

“We have improved technically on the ball, and we’re able to do better things, and we know each other,” Cirillo said. “But we’ve also had some things that haven’t improved.”

Before the first three games, Cirillo said the team had the feeling they could win, and that’s just not there right now. He said the team has played hard, taking several of their games down to the wire, it’s just a matter of getting that first mark in the win column.

“The only thing we lack is the mental stability to win,” Cirillo said. “But how do you teach that to 18 and 20 year old kids? We’ve played some tough teams, and you say well that’s tough. Even though we lost them, I still think that we are capable of winning those games. When you go in up 1-0 at the half, you have to hold on. And that’s where the mental aspect comes in.”

The schedule hasn’t been easy for the Lions.

“I want to play quality soccer,” Cirillo said. “The big question is do you want to win, or do you want to play quality soccer? Now, you might not win every game, but when you look at your schedule and you can say that you’re going to go out there and play quality soccer, that can help you with recruiting, and in other areas.”

Hope finally came for the Lions Oct. 1 in a win against John Brown University, 3-1. With nine games left on the schedule, the Lions have plenty of chances; both for notching another win in the W column and for playing quality soccer.