It wasn’t a win, but it could have felt like one for the Albert Lea boys’ soccer team Tuesday night when it tied Rochester Century 0-0 in two overtimes.

The Tigers (5-10-1) were coming off the heels of a 5-4 loss to Byron and had allowed 12 goals in their previous three games. Albert Lea head coach Elia Romano placed a greater emphasis on defending and the Tigers came through with a strong defensive showing against the Panthers.

“We came out with a more stingy attitude, a little bit more willing to get behind the ball,” Romano said. “We changed up how we’re defending corner kicks and it worked pretty well. The ball is still bouncing inside our 18 at times, which I don’t like. The upside is that we’ve got so many bodies back, we’re really closing down and pressuring the ball quickly.”

Defending set pieces was a concern for the Tigers after allowing three goals off set pieces in Byron Saturday but against Century (7-6-2) Albert Lea brought everyone back to defend on corner kicks and did not allow any goals.

“We worked a lot on our set pieces and made sure that we got back quick and covered everybody,” Tigers midfielder Tyler Prihoda said. “We got a new formation — we went to a zone coverage. That was a lot better because we got everyone back and they knew what field they were covering.”

The Panthers outshot the Tigers 15-9 and controlled possession of the ball for longer periods of time than Albert Lea. Century worked in the Tigers defensive third for large portions of time in the second half, but the Albert Lea defense stood strong and didn’t give up many quality scoring opportunities.

“They had a lot of opportunities up front,” Prihoda said. “They controlled most of the midfield, but we had a couple of chances in the box.”

The Tigers were still able to find scoring opportunities with more of a defensive approach. Oscar Hernandez had a breakaway chance in the second half but sent his shot wide of the goal. He also had an earlier breakaway near the end of the first half but the ball was just a little too far from his reach for a shot.

Romano said the lack of possession had something to do with the defensive approach the team took to the game.

“It was not as sharp as usual, but you have to credit Rochester for a little bit of that,” he said. “They were getting quick pressure on the ball and the other part of that is we came in with such a defensive mind that something has to give.”

The Tigers didn’t get a win, but they did accomplish what they set out to do in terms of what they wanted to work on.

“The reaction time on dead balls was really the thing we took the biggest strides forward in,” Romano said. “There really were very few times that the ball went out of bounds and we didn’t immediately find our defensive shape.”

Albert Lea has two games remaining before the section tournament begins and while a victory would have been good for the team, fixing the kinks was a step in the right direction.

“Maybe not quite the result we wanted, but it’s not bad especially against Century,” Prihoda said. “Hopefully it will build up to a win on Thursday.”

The Tigers play John Marshall in Rochester Thursday and end the regular season against Kasson-Mantorville.