The men's soccer team had reasons to be optimistic about its postseason chances after the first four games of the season: a new field, a 4-0 record with a combined score of 15-3 and two UAA Player of the Week awards honoring one rookie scoring phenom, Ben Premo '09 and one veteran goal keeper, Pat Makridakis '06, both of whom, like their team, far surpassed preseason expectations.But as the team approaches its last seven games of the season, the optimism had been replaced by something closer to desperation.

"We're just not scoring goals," coach Mike Coven said.

On Wednesday, the men's soccer team fought back to force extra play before a heartbreaking blown save by Makridakis gave visiting MIT a 3-2 overtime win Wednesday. A few days later, the Judges were blown out of the water 7-1 against conference powerhouse University of Rochester. Brandeis has gone 2-4-1 since the first four games of the season, and the team is 0-1-1 in conference play with a 6-4-1 overall record.

Numerous dedicated Judges fans toughed out the rainy weather on Saturday to watch their team fall quickly to UAA rival Rochester. The Yellowjackets, ranked No. 5 in the country, tallied four goals in the first half and never looked back in cruising to victory. The Yellow Jackets poured on seven goals before Jason Ring '07 blasted a shot from just outside the box for his first collegiate goal to avoid the shutout.

"Top to bottom, that's a wonderful soccer team," Coven said of Rochester. "They were bigger, stronger and faster."

Against MIT, Brandeis' comeback hopes were dashed just 39 seconds into the first overtime in Wednesday's game, when sophomore James Zorich hit a soft shot from 30 yards out that slipped through the hands of Makridakis to give the Engineers the victory.

"I took my eye off it and I just blew it," Makridakis said of the goal. "There's really nothing else to say."

The Engineers had scored first in the 22nd minute of the first half when sophomore Chase Lochmiller headed a cross into the back of the net. MIT added a second goal 11 minutes later when sophomore Joshua Campoverde kicked in a loose ball from the box.

"The first half against MIT, we were horrific," Coven said. "We gave up two horrible goals and didn't get anything going."

Goalie Jake Knoll '08 suffered a broken leg while making a save later in the half and had to be taken off the field on a stretcher. He was replaced by Makridakis.

In the second half, Brandeis came out strong and pulled to within 2-1 in the 60th minute when Kevin Murphy '09 fired a shot into the goal from 20 yards out. The Judges continued to pressure the Engineers' defense and finally tied the game with 5:26 remaining in regulation, when captain Scott Zackaroff '07 slipped a rebound past MIT rookie goalie Thomas Caldwell. The Judges fired off three more shots before the end of regulation, and went into overtime re-energized before the MIT game winner slipped through Makridakis' hands 37 seconds later.

Despite the loss, Coven acknowledged the team's improvement in the second half.

"The second half might have been the best half we've played all year," Coven said. "I don't know if they even caught the midfield line. We were all over them."

Coven tinkered with the lineup slightly for the game against Rochester. Adam Goldstein '09 and Zach Cohen '09 started in place of more experienced players. After Knoll's injury during the MIT game, Coven started Matt Kaplan '06 in goal over Makridakis. Makridakis took Kaplan's place in the second half after Rochester was leading 4-0.

"I think [Kaplan] and [Madridakis] are equal goalkeepers and I'm going to give [Kaplan] a chance," Coven said.

A lagging offense continues to be a major problem for the Judges, who have not scored more than two goals in a game since a 4-0 victory against Worcester Polytechnic Institute on Sept. 13. Coven attributed part of the problem to the recent ineffectiveness of Premo due to the fact that he has been seeing more attention from opposing defenses.

Zackaroff said that the team as a whole needs to work on their offensive output.

"I think we need to find our feet more," Zackaroff said. "We're not getting shots off fast and we need to be more creative on the ball."

The road ahead in the UAA season continues to be challenging. On Friday, the team travels to Pittsburgh to take on Carnegie-Melon at 5:30 p.m. in a UAA contest followed by a trip to Atlanta to play Emory University, ranked No. 6 in the country, on Sunday at 11 a.m.

"We can improve by coming together as a team and working on our weaknesses." Stewart said.

Coven put things simply:

"We have to win some games."

-Jonathan Zimmerman contributed to this article