After losing its third straight match and fourth match out of five, the NIU men’s soccer team and coach Steve Simmons are looking for answers.

But the Huskies remain confident, and aren’t asking “if,” but instead, “when?”

When will they catch a few breaks that have been going against them? When will they string together a couple wins to build some momentum?

Simmons is confident all this will happen, despite a 1-0 loss at Drake on Sunday afternoon.

Through this losing streak, Simmons says his team hasn’t played poorly at all. And he maintains that he wants his team to keep playing the same way they’ve been playing and not change a thing.

The same could be said for Sunday’s match, one in which the defense – a phase of the game in which the Huskies have faltered a bit this season – played a solid game.

“On defense, I thought we were much more tighter and effective,” Simmons said. “We had good energy and good spirits. No major mistakes.

“We just need to play and train positively. Our guys will be fine. We just need to roll up our sleeves and get back to work.”

The only blunder was a missed clear in the 55th minute that led to the only goal of the game by Drake’s Michael Noonan.

“It came down to one mistake, which they capitalized on,” Simmons said. “This one hurts, and we know it. We deserved more.”

Simmons, though, still maintained that the Huskies don’t need to make any drastic chances.

“There are certain things this game is going to punish you on,” Simmons said.

“If you overanalyze yourself, you’re gonna find yourself paralyzed. Right now, the results are not there,” he said. “But we’ll find a way. As a coaching staff, we’ll keep doing our best.”

The Huskies (2-5-3) actually did find the net. A Blake Gotkowski free kick was headed home by Drew Jeskey, but Jeskey was whistled for offsides, wiping out the goal.

“That was disheartening. We wanted to punch it in,” Simmons said. “We weren’t able to capitalize. We felt it would be a one-goal game.”