Before fans and spectators could even find their seats, the first goal in Wisconsin men’s soccer match against Loyola-Chicago was scored.

In the very first minute of play, Loyola’s Ben Crognale was able to take in a cross from the outside right corner in front of the goal and put it past the keeper. Before most of the Wisconsin team had time to even process the start of the game, they were down 1-0.

It was something this young Badger team could ill afford to have happen, head coach John Trask said.

“At no point during that play did we ever have possession of the ball, and I don’t think we touched the ball until it was in our box,” Trask said.

A team falling behind 1-0 before they even have a chance to possess the ball can be hard on the team and really impact a player’s mental state.

Nevertheless, the Badgers remained calm and looked to keep fighting with so much time left to play in the match.

“I think the goal there is to not let it affect your psyche,” senior defender David Caban said. “It happened 48 seconds into the game, so from then on we know we have 44 minutes to get a goal back. So I think from that point on, we treat it like its 0-0, and try to get that goal back. We did put in a little bit more work then we wanted to going down early, but that’s the game and that’s what happens sometimes.”

As a backline, and overall as a team defensively, giving up a goal on a team’s first possession can be somewhat demoralizing while giving the opposition a new boost of confidence. It was important for this Badger squad to stay solid and prevent themselves from falling into an even bigger hole.

“I think defensively as a team it puts a little pressure on us because it gives the other team some comfort room,” Caban said. “If you look at Loyola, getting that early lead I think helped their psyche, which in turn put us under a little more pressure, but I think we responded well.”

The Badgers did respond well, and 17 minutes after the opening goal, the Badgers did get that goal back from freshman forward Tom Barlow, his fourth of the year, off a well-played deflection from freshman midfielder Mike Catalano.

Scoring that equalizer was huge for the team’s confidence after a very rough start to the night.

“I was impressed with the way we bounced back, though. We didn’t panic and we kept playing through them,”  junior midfielder Drew Conner said. “It was good to tie it up before half.”

Despite the brief shift in momentum, UW was unable to find that second goal and complete the comeback victory.

That can largely be attributed to Loyola’s stout backline, as Wisconsin struggled for the majority of the second half to get the ball past the Loyola defenders after finding many opportunities in the first half.

“They held a really good line of defense, but I just didn’t think we had the quality tonight within our passing. We need to do better to get balls through the other team’s backline,” Conner said.

There have been times this season when the team has fallen behind early and panicked. However, this time around, through growing as a team, Wisconsin responded in a much more effective way, and the results showed that was the case.

Despite not getting the win, this young Badger squad showed great resiliency after being put in a difficult situation just 48 seconds into the match.

“One thing we keep preaching to these guys is that unless a goal happens in the 89th minute, soccer is a long game, and there will be a lot of moments where you will be able to get back in the game,” Trask said. “I think this time is registered that we had a lot of time to get that goal back and we started playing better right away, rather than everyone losing their position.”