By JONATHAN WEBB

At the beginning of the season, noteworthy success appeared to be unlikely for the Webster University men’s soccer team.

The Gorloks looked to be in for a long season after the schedule’s first month. WU lost its first five games — all by one goal — and didn’t win a game until its seventh match of the season.

The team’s offense was impotent. Through the first five games, WU scored three goals, and no more than one in any game.

The defense kept the Gorloks in these games, but they were never able to crack that glass ceiling.

Coach Marty Todt was sitting on 199 career wins since the end of last season, and after nearly a month’s time, hadn’t cracked that 200 plateau.

Then conference play kicked in, and so did the victories.

WU found itself in the win column by knocking off a woeful Westminster College team, beginning a run that moved the Gorloks to the top of the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference standings.

After kick-starting the run against Westminster, WU won five more games in succession, including two that embodied the team’s gradual transformation from the season’s first weeks.

The Gorloks defeated Principia College, 1-0, on Oct. 6. At the time, the Panthers were undefeated in conference play, and would have been favored over WU. The win gave some credibility to the streak.

The Gorloks were not only beating up on SLIAC bottom feeders. They proved they were at least able to compete with the conference’s best.

The team’s six-game winning streak was capped by a 3-2 road victory over Spalding University on Oct. 21. In that game, the Gorloks trailed by one until they managed to tie it in the final minute, before winning in the second overtime.

The wins over Principia and Spalding were everything the early-season losses were not. One of those early losses was to North Park University.

WU jumped to an early 1-0 lead and watched as North Park went on a 3-0 run to win the game. WU did not show the resolve to mount a comeback at the time.

These one-goal wins revealed a different team. The September version would not have beaten Principia or Spalding. Unable to muster an offense, they would have likely faltered in yet another one-goal loss, continuing a disturbing trend.

This revival does not make the Gorloks world-beaters.

In fact, they are not necessarily the premier team in the SLIAC, as they dropped their first conference game last week, 2-1 to first-place Greenville College.

But they showed they at least will compete for that top spot as the conference tournament approaches.

They have turned the corner.