Whether in victory or defeat, one theme rings clear for the men's soccer team: The Judges have yet to display an ability to start games strong."We don't come out of the gates ready to play," said forward Ben Premo '09, who posted his second career hat trick earlier in the week.

"We need to start playing our game from the beginning."

After going down 2-0 on the road against conference rival University of Rochester Saturday, the team was unable to rally for the victory behind improved second-half play, eventually falling 3-0.

Conversely, the Judges were able to overcome poor first-half play Wednesday, storming back from a 3-0 halftime deficit against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a 4-3 triumph.

The Judges are now 4-4-3 for the season and 0-2 in the University Athletic Association.

"We really came out very slow [against Rochester] and didn't play well at all," coach Mike Coven said.

"In the second half, we possessed the ball and we defended great. But we did everything but score."

The Yellowjackets opened the scoring early, when junior midfielder Patrick Ripp took a free kick in the 15th minute that bounced in the box before finding the back of the net.

Four minutes later, Yellowjacket senior forward Neil Osuch added to the lead when he received a header in the box and chipped it into the goal to give Rochester a 2-0 lead.

Coven said the goals resulted from defensive breakdowns.

"We made two mental lapses in our defensive third of the field and that cost us both of those goals," he said.

The Judges best chance to score came in the 32nd minute, when forward Patrick Metelus '10 broke free from the Rochester defense and slipped the ball past Rochester junior goalie Paco Corbalan.

But junior defender Eric Meister managed to knock the ball away before it reached the open net to knock it away.

With the Judges down 2-0 at halftime, Coven decided to switch to a more offensive formation, removing a defender and inserting an extra attacker, but to no avail.

In Wednesday's game at MIT, the Judges also fell behind early with a sluggish first half, but this time managed to overcome the deficit.

Down 3-0 at the break, the Judges rallied behind Premo's second-half hat trick and senior midfielder Mike Snyder's '07 late game-winning goal.

But the Judges, Premo said, should not have needed the massive comeback against MIT in the first place.

"It feels good to come back and beat MIT, but you have to realize that there is no reason we should have been down 3-0 in the first place," Premo said.

Captain Scott Zackaroff '07 attributes the Judges' first-half woes to reduced pressure when the game is just getting started.

"We don't have the sense of urgency that we have in the second half," he said.

"It takes us a hard 45 minutes for us that sense of urgency to kick in."

The Judges play three home games this week, including two against UAA rivals.

Brandeis hosts Carnegie Mellon University Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Emory University Sunday at 1 p.m. The team also play Newbury College Wednesday at 6 p.m.