After cruising to a 4-0 victory in the season opener against Vermont last Friday, the Harvard men’s soccer team slipped in its rainy contest at Rhode Island yesterday, 5-1.

Though the weekend began on a high note and ended quite a bit lower, junior Ladd Fritz’s impact on the scoreboard remained stellar. Fritz tallied two goals against the Catamounts and added Harvard’s lone goal against the Rams.

In yesterday’s wet event, the Crimson allowed two goals to leak through during the early-going and saw its attempts at redemption foiled as the Rams rolled in a rout.

“Nobody’s job’s secure right now—including myself—when you play like that,” sophomore goalkeeper Jamie Roth said. “So we just need to train hard and see what happens.”

Any changes the Crimson makes will have to happen on the fly, as Harvard travels to Fairfield on Wednesday.

The Crimson has a bit more time before making its Ivy debut on Sept. 28 at Brown.

“The weekend isn’t as bad as it seems—the bad loss will serve as a wake-up call for us,” senior Charles Morrow said. “We have a really strong side. A lot of little things came together today.”

Rhode Island 5, Harvard 1

The Rams rode the momentum from its win last week over No. 15 Alabama-Birmingham, in which Rhode Island scored the game-winner with just over five minutes remaining.

Yesterday, the Rams got a head start when Kevin Kennedy scored off of a cross in the box just 39 seconds into the game. Five minutes later, Rhode Island doubled its lead on Ross Smith’s header.

“I did not play well,” Roth said. “I won’t make excuses and as a team we didn’t get into a rhythm or settle down.”

Harvard started the second half on the right foot as senior Charles Morrow sent a pass to Fritz at the top of the box. Fritz directed a bending 20-yard shot into goal, putting the Crimson on the board at the 49:40 mark.

But Harvard’s recovery was cut short when Andy O’Boyle put the ball past Roth at 69:19.

“We thought we could rebound nicely, but after the third goal, we just fell apart and couldn’t get anything else going,” Roth said.