With a flurry of scores in the second half, the University of Connecticut Huskies (10-2-5, 4-0-4 in the American Athletic Conference) finished off the SMU Mustangs (3-12-2, 2-4-2 in AAC) men’s soccer team’s first season in the new conference, 5-0.

The score seemed relatively manageable coming out of halftime for the Mustangs who were only down by one on a Nicholas Zuniga score just before the midway point.

SMU kept the shots close, only allowing two more to UConn than they gathered at 7-5 and actually accrued more corner kicks in the first half than the Huskies did all game.

In the second half, nothing seemed to go right for the Mustangs, who were held to just two shots on goal as opposed to UConn’s 11.

Not much time ticked off the clock before the second Huskie goal found the back of the SMU net, this one from Cyle Larin in the 55th minute.

Larin scored another 12 minutes after that, while teammates George Fochive and Allando Matheson scored the last two respectively to ice the game.

Coming off of a double-digit win season, the Mustangs were unable to consistently get the kind of production on the offensive side of the ball this season that has made them a force to be reckoned with.

The Mustangs were held to two goals or less in 15 of the team’s 17 matches, and against a much tougher AAC schedule, the wins fell short of SMU’s expectations.

Fortunately for the Mustangs, several key players should return in 2014, including the team’s top two goal scorers junior Andrew Morales and sophomore Alfred Koroma.

Days will be brighter for the Men’s soccer team, but for now the team will have to focus on finding a better balance against the top dogs of the AAC.