Catamount men’s soccer fell to the University of Hartford 1-0 at Virtue Field on Saturday.

The loss extended the Catamounts’ losing streak to three games.

The lone goal of the game came late in the second half, after the Catamounts cleared a Hartford throw-in.

Hartford substitute Quenton Swift fired a shot from the edge of the 18-yard box past first-year goalkeeper Aron Runarsson.

The Cats were on the front foot for most of the game, outshooting the Hawks 20-8 and earning nine corner kicks to Hartford’s two.

All 10 of UVM’s shots on target were met with a save from Hartford goalkeeper Jimmy Slayton, while the Hawks had three shots on goal.

After starting 8-1-0, the Catamounts have slumped to 1-4-1, including three conference losses to the University at Albany, the No.18 University of Massachusetts Lowell, and Saturday’s defeat to Hartford.

“It’s tough,” head coach Jesse Cormier said.

“We’re definitely slumping, and we’re slumping at the wrong time,” he said. “The big thing is, at the end of the day, we have to work harder, stay united and find answers. Hopefully we can by the time the season is over.”

Cormier said he believes the slump has occurred because other teams have found ways to counter the Cats’ tactics.

“I think what’s happened is teams have adapted to how we play,” he said.

“Every team we’ve played the last two to three weeks has played in a pretty deep position defensively and tried to hit us on the break. We haven’t really problem-solved well enough to deal with a team that really sits deep and defends, and we’re not making teams pay for sitting back. They’re functioning, and they’re finding success.”

Cormier pinpointed the chemistry of the attack as a problem, as well as set pieces.

“Our attack wasn’t really cohesive and wasn’t what it needed to be on the night,” Cormier said.

“And we can definitely make some improvements there. And I think we can make improvements in terms of our set plays. I thought our defending and our attacking set plays were not up to the standards.”

The Cats have lost back-to-back games that were decided in the final 10 minutes of play, something Cormier said he knows his team needs to work on.

“We haven’t found a way to really put together 90 minutes of competitive, high-level quality,” he said.

Vermont falls to 9-5-1 on the season — 1-3-0 in America East — and goes on the road for the next two weeks.

The Cats will visit the Binghamton University Bearcats Oct. 22 and the University of Maryland Baltimore County Retrievers Oct. 29 before finishing the regular season at home against the University of New Hampshire Wildcats Nov. 2.