The halftime mood was more subdued, however, as the squad sat on the field near the bench listening to Leone. Better play in the second half and opportunities for the whole team to substitute in lifted the spirits of the Crimson players, who saw positives even in the shutout loss.

“I think we put some good things together, but we did have a couple of breakdowns,” Makaroff said. “We’re going to take this and build on it and move forward.

There were some great moments for us in this game and we’re definitely making progress and getting where we want to be.”

Harvard returns to Soldiers Field for a Friday afternoon match against Hofstra, then travels to face Rhode Island on Sunday in its last non-conference games before opening Ivy League play against Penn on Sept. 23.

Until then, the Crimson will be practicing and reviewing footage from the busy slate of games they have had in the past weeks—a schedule that has kept Harvard off of the practice field.

“There are some areas we have to look at the film and learn from,” Leone said. “We need to practice. We’ve been playing games, so not until we get through Sunday will we have that chance.”