By By Kirby Morrison, News Staff

Despite a barrage of shots and a game-tying goal in the 57th minute by junior forward Nick Lueders, the men’s soccer team dropped their home opener, 2-1, to Holy Cross Tuesday.
The Huskies are now 1-3 this season.
More than 100 fans showed up at Parsons Field for the home opener. The Crusaders struck first in the 33rd minute when Kyle Miller snuck one past freshman goalkeeper Michael Gallagher. Northeastern couldn’t capitalize on its opportunities in the first half to tie the game despite firing seven shots, three of which were on goal.
The second half proved exciting as Crusader Jon Werth scored the go-ahead goal less than one minute after Lueders tied the game with his goal in the 57th minute. The game ended in defeat for the Huskies despite a number of chances, outshooting Holy Cross 14-4 in the second half. Gallagher made three saves in defeat.
Head coach Brian Ainscough said opportunities were there for the Huskies to win or tie the game, but none could be converted.
‘At the end of the day we haven’t scored many goals this year and I think if you looked at the game today, there were many chances and they don’t get any better than that,’ Ainscough said.
Northeastern outshot Holy Cross 21-7 throughout the game and had nine shots on goal to their five. The inability of the Huskies to finish and the effectiveness of the Crusader defense stopping eight of nine shots on goal cost NU the game.
Ainscough said he won’t make any excuses for close calls.
‘You can start taking a lot of positives and you can use all the clich’eacute;s you want, but you can’t take positives when you’re 1-3,’ Ainscough said. ‘The good news is that we’re not into our conference yet and we have a couple more games to get that straight.’
Holy Cross has a history of breaking the hearts of Northeastern fans, as they did Sept. 13, 2008 at Smith Soccer Stadium in Worcester. The Huskies scored early that game in the 14th minute before Miller tied the game in the 36th minute. Within a 10-minute span of Northeastern’s go-ahead goal in the 72nd minute, Holy Cross managed to tie the game up and then score the game winning goal in the 82nd minute.
Despite some solid defensive play this season, Northeastern has struggled to convert on scoring chances. Through the first four games, the Huskies have scored only two goals on 59 shots. Through the first four games of last year’s season, Northeastern scored five goals on 29 shots.
Ainscough said his team must improve offensively.
‘If you’re not going to take advantage of four to five or six quality chances, you’re not going to win many games,’ he said. ‘So in a nutshell, you got to finish, especially with what the other team gives you.’
The Huskies open up Colonial Athletic Association play Sept. 26 when they travel to Harrisonburg, Va. to take on James Madison. Northeastern will have a chance to work out any problems it has when it takes on the University of Massachusetts, Amherst this Saturday at Parsons Field at 6 p.m.