The first win of the season still remains elusive for the Missouri Southern men’s soccer team.

On Sept. 12, the Lions took on Southern Illinois-Edwardsville and lost 1-5. The one score for Southern came from B.J. Wylie off a free break from 15 yards out in the game’s 60th minute with an assist from Adam Skiermont.

Then on Sept. 14, Southern lost its second home game, 1-0, to the Quincy University Hawks. The Lions have lost all four meetings of the two teams starting in 2000.

The Hawks have outscored Southern 11-5.

“We won and lost in the midfield for both teams,” said head coach Kiley Cirillo. “They (QU) played solid in both halves; they got a good goal.”

Southern had several chances to tie the game, but came up short each time. Cirillo said the team is learning from game to game. He believes the referees missed a lot of calls.

“They missed both ways,” he said.

Cirillo said he doesn’t blame anyone, and the missed calls by the referees wouldn’t have let them win the game. Travis Haight, freshman goalkeeper, said the game was good, and there was only one bad break.

“We all played solid for 90 minutes,” Haight said.

The game-winning goal came in the 52nd minute from Josh Worth. The shot was unassisted, but rebounded off the defender. During the first half, Mark Taylor of the Hawks was taken down by what looked like an elbow from Southern.

Taylor’s ear was ripped, and he had a slight concussion. He was taken to the hospital for further examination.

The next opponents for the Lions will be Sept. 21 at the University of Central Arkansas. The Lions have faced off against UCA six times and won two of those six games. The last meeting of the two teams was in 2001. The Lions lost, 2-0.

“We need to keep playing hard and break the mental mistakes,” Haight said.

Cirillo said the team needs to learn to do “the small things right.”

“We’ve got to keep doing what we’ve been doing,” he said. “We need to keep a positive attitude, and that’s hard to do.”