The result wasn’t there for the Albert Lea boys’ soccer team in its home opener, but head coach Elia Romano was pleased with what he saw in the first game.

The focus through the early part of the season has been defense and Romano was satisfied with its performance in a 2-0 loss to Century Tuesday night at Hammer Field.

“One of the biggest positives I take from this game is they did not score during the run of play,” Romano said. “So they did not unlock us during the run of play.”

Century (2-1-1, 1-0 Big Nine) scored in the 17th minute of play off a throw-in when Grant Askildson connected on a header that found the back of the net. The Panthers added a goal in the second half on a corner kick that bounced around in the box before Eric Bornholdt stuck a shot into the back corner of the net in the 56th minute of play.

“We put everything we had on the field for 80 minutes and that’s something we had a hard time accomplishing even at the end of last year, nevertheless the first game,” Romano said. “So that’s a great place to start. Now we just need to tidy up some of the technical aspects of the game so we can hold possession a little better against teams that press hard.”

The game plan coming in for the Tigers (0-1, 0-1 Big Nine) was to find their offensive opportunities off the counterattack and set pieces, something the team did very well in the first half at stretches. With Alik Smed’s flip throw-in Albert Lea looked dangerous in the attacking third of the field in the early going. But as the game progressed Century gained more possession of the ball and started to wear down the Tigers with their attack.

The Panthers outshot Albert Lea 23-13 in the game with Century finding several opportunities to score throughout the second half, but the young Tiger defense was able to hold off the Panther attack.

“They really didn’t look dangerous until we got into the second half and started intentionally leaving space behind the defense, trying to hold a higher line,” Romano said.

The Albert Lea defense featured three new starters, including a sophomore and was facing a Century squad with 18 seniors on the roster.

In the second half the Panthers controlled possession while the Tigers spent the half chasing the ball. Albert Lea had no real scoring chances and Century’s goalie was not tested. Romano said he knew entering the game his team would not have much possession, but the offense will come around.

“I think the technical side of the game is still letting us down a little bit, so we’ll continue to work on that and we’ve been working on that in practice every day,” he said. “As that grows then we’ll be able to play a slightly more possession-oriented game.”

Despite the loss Romano was pleased to see his team compete with one of the top teams in the conference.

“You could tell when they took the field they weren’t intimidated and that was really one of the things that was one of our goals, is to come out and go toe-to-toe with one of the top conference teams,” Romano said. “I think we got that done for the majority of the night.”

The Tigers will try to rebound Friday against Waseca at Hammer Field.