Husson College’s second-year football program is getting closer to that elusive first win as evidenced by the Bangor-based school’s 35-28 loss to Salve Regina (R.I.) in a mutual season-opener on Saturday.

Head coach and athletic director Gabby Price was encouraged by his team’s performance.

“I thought our guys competed. I thought they played very hard. We just came up a little short,” said Price whose Eagles went 0-7 last year.

Price was particularly pleased with his offense, which generated 379 total yards and averaged 7.4 yards per play.

“Our offensive line was outstanding,” said Price referring to sophomore left tackle Louis Avent, freshman left guard Jason Cross, sophomore center David Brown, freshman right guard Kurt Tabor, sophomore right tackle A.J. Buzzell and tight end Matt Mulligan, also a sophomore.

“Fullback Jason Jack and tailbacks Mike Prentiss (16 rushes, 129 yards), Adam Scott (16-69) and Matt Hilton (2-56) all played well. Our receivers [James Dobson, Colby Horne] blocked well,” added Price.

The Eagles surrendered 479 total yards and were victimized by missed tackles but Price said he liked the way they “flew to the ball.

“[Nose tackle] Adam Premo was outstanding,” said Price who also praised defensive tackle Tyler Libbey.

Price said the kicking game has shown “big improvement” thanks to punter Jon Tefft, placekicker Josh Johnson and the kick returns of Prentiss.

The Eagles face Utica College (N.Y.) on Saturday at 1:00 in their home opener. Utica thumped the Eagles 36-0 last season.

“It should be a good football game. We didn’t play well up there last year but you’ve got to give them credit,” said Price.

He said his Eagles are way ahead of where they were at this stage last season but there is plenty of work to do.

“We’ve got to get better fundamentally. We missed some tackles and blocks on Saturday. But our kids have a lot of courage and enough strength to do it. We want to get better every day,” said Price.