After losing 4-0 to Buffalo Friday night and 1-0 to California-Irvine Sunday, the Marquette men’s soccer team lost its last three games and has been outscored 7-0 in those games.

For coach Louis Bennett the lack of offense is upsetting, but he said the team cannot press itself to score goals.

“If you push too hard you lose the flow of scoring goals,” Bennett said. “It’s a very delicate balance.”

The scoring woes were not for a lack of opportunity. In the last week the team had six shots against No. 21 Drake, 19 against Buffalo, and 14 against No. 9 UC-Irvine.

“The chances have been there, but we haven’t been able to put them in,” freshman forward Anthony Selvaggi said. “Maybe we need to focus a little bit more.”

Sophomore midfielder Calum Mallace said the issue is desire.

“The attack players need to want it more — to win, to score goals. We do that in practice,” Mallace said. “And now we need to bring it to the game field.”

Bennett said he received scouting reports of his team from UC-Irvine. The report said that Marquette needed a forward, and he believes the team has a few options.

“Andy Huftalin, Andrew Krynski, and Selvaggi, are freshman forwards,” Bennett said. “We need one of them to catch a light.”

For now, the team’s main scoring threat remains Mallace. In the last three games Mallace led the team in shot attempts with two against Drake and six against both Buffalo and UC-Irvine.

“The way we’ve structured the midfield Mallace gets free reign to roam,” Bennett said. “He can pick and choose when or where he gets the ball.

But the coach indicated that Mallace cannot be the only option.

“We expect that he would get a lot more shots or open looks,” he said. “I’m more concerned about the youngsters we’ve given opportunities to and when they’re going to break out.”

Bennett said one of the team’s most talented strikers, freshman Adam Lysak, will boost the team’s offensive production when he recovers from a fractured ankle.

“I think once he’s in the mix…he’s going to help,” Bennett said.

Bennett doesn’t think that playing two nationally ranked opponents has created the team’s offensive struggles.

“If we were defending and defending and not getting opportunities to score then I’d be more concerned that we’d have to drastically change some things,” Bennett said about their two games against nationally ranked opponents. “But we are getting opportunities.”

The Buffalo game illustrated Marquette’s current offensive struggles. The team had 19 corner kicks in addition to 19 shots and came away with no goals.

Mallace maintains that it is a matter of want and that the team will be more successful on corner kicks when the big guys take control in front of the net.

“The bigger guys, like myself, need to be hungrier getting to the ball,” Mallace said. “Guys need to be unafraid of getting their heads in there.”