On a dark and stormy Saturday at LaValle Stadium, there appeared to be one shining ray of light for Stony Brook’s men’s soccer team.

The Seawolves defeated the New Hampshire Wildcats 1-0 after Favio Sbarra broke a scoreless tie in the 84th minute to give Stony Brook the lead.

For Sbarra, this was his first goal of the season after scoring two in 2013.

“I was lucky to score this important goal to give us three points.” Sbarra said.

Although Stony Brook ultimately came away with a win, it was not pretty the whole way through.

The Seawolves were outshot 5-1 in the first half and had few offensive chances until late in the game.

“We didn’t do a good enough job in the first half of picking up the second ball,” Seawolves coach Ryan Anatol said. “In the second half we did a much better job of getting the second ball and being able to play from that we were able to get a lot better service into the box and create more dangerous chances.”

During the second half, the Seawolves would be much more effective, both on the offensive and defensive sides of the ball.

The team outshot New Hampshire 7-1, and kept the defense on their feet for much of the half while limiting the offense to just a single opportunity.

“We tried to score through the game, but it was hard. New Hampshire is a good team but in the end, we did it.” Sbarra said.

In the aftermath of last week’s blown lead against Northeastern, Antanol made sure the Seawolves would be prepared to close out games.

His message was apparently carried out by the team, as they played their best soccer late in the game.

“The lesson we needed to take from the last game was how to finish a game and not just hold on, but to continue dominating the game.” Anatol said.

Although a win in conference play had the Seawolves locker room feeling optimistic, the game may have hurt the Seawolves going forward.

Junior defenseman Mario Mesen left the game in the middle of the second half with an apparent leg injury.

He did not return and had a noticeable limp in the locker room after the game.

“Mario’s a big part of what we do, but I haven’t spoken to anyone on his injury yet” Anatol said.

For Stony Brook, a win in their first conference game keeps the team’s America East hopes alive.

The team will look to keep its momentum going this Tuesday as they take on Villanova at LaValle Stadium.

On Saturday, the Seawolves will have a road matchup against America East conference foe Vermont.