BIDDEFORD — A little more than a month ago, University of New England men’s soccer coach Peter Oestergaard and UNE women’s soccer coach Heather Davis were both quietly confident heading into their respective seasons, believing their teams had what it takes to compete with anyone on their schedules, including the upper-echelon teams of the Commonwealth Coast Conference.

If it takes at least half a season for a coach to start to truly find out the identity of his or her team, consider Oestergaard and Davis plenty pleased so far.

The Nor’easters soccer teams have both come out of the gates firing this fall, notching signature wins ”“ including several against teams that UNE had never beaten in many previous tries ”“ and finding another gear after experiencing losing seasons each of the past two years.

After an impressive 4-0 win over Western New England on Saturday, the UNE women’s team stands at 7-2, including a 3-1 mark in conference that has them leading the CCC.

Not to be outdone, the men’s team has started 6-3-1, including 2-2 in the CCC after a 1-0 victory at defending conference champion WNE on Saturday in one of the biggest wins for the program this century.

“The women’s team has been right on the edge for the past two seasons, and the men’s program is getting back to where we think it should be,” Oestergaard said. “It’s been nice to see.”

In his first year as the men’s head coach, Oestergaard led the Nor’easters men’s squad to a 6-8-2 mark ”“ their best record in four seasons ”“ and has already tied that win total this season.

After starting conference play 0-2 with losses to Endicott and Gordon, UNE has rebounded for a pair of 1-0 wins on the road, with Tyler Garnick scoring in double overtime to lift the Nor’easters past Eastern Nazarene on Sept. 27, then setting up Matt Christie for the only goal against Western New England ”“ a team UNE had previously been 0-9-1 against ”“ on Saturday.

“I had a coach back in the day in Denmark who said the best result you can get is a 1-0 win,” Oestergaard said. “It might not be fun for the people watching it, but that shows a team knows what it’s doing.”

After winning a combined five games on the road over the past three seasons, UNE is 3-2-1 away from home this season, including a 0-0 draw at Bates, a team UNE had lost each of its 18 previous encounters with.

“The prior few years, this program was winning one game away a season, and this year, we already have three wins away,” Oestergaard said. “If you want to be a good soccer team you have to be able to go away and get a result, so I’m extremely happy about that.”

Nine different Nor’easters have spread out the scoring evenly so far, with Garnick’s three goals leading the team. Four different players ”“ including freshman Darius Ntacyo, a Thornton Academy graduate ”“ have added two apiece, while four others have each scored once.

At the back end, goalie Aidan McParland ”“ a two-time all-CCC first-team selection ”“ is having another tremendous season, compiling an 89.2 save percentage and a 0.74 goals against average while recording five clean sheets.

“Players are starting to understand their roles, and as a coaching staff, we’re starting to find the right balance for the players on the field,” Oestergaard said. “We’re still a little fragile in the sense that I can’t wake somebody up at 3 a.m., and they’ll be able to tell me exactly where they’re supposed to be on the pitch; it’s not automatic, but it’s getting closer.”

The men’s team will play a non-conference game at Johnson and Wales tonight before starting a four-game home stand against conference foe Wentworth on Saturday.

The stretch will also include games against conference opponents Nichols and Salve Regina, teams with 3-1 and 2-2 conference records, respectively, that UNE is jockeying with for playoff positioning near the top of the CCC standings.

For a program with just one winning conference record since joining the CCC in 1999, it’s a stretch that could make or break the season.

“It’s a very important period for our program, there’s no doubt about it,” Oestergaard said of the next five games. “We’ll take it one game at a time, but we’re not that far away from being able to compete with any team in the conference. It’s about sticking to what we’ve already been successful with, and we’ll get the results.”

The women’s team has been seeing the results as well, and like the men’s team, the women have been road warriors this season, winning all three of their conference games away from home.

That included a 2-1 victory on Sept. 13 at defending conference champion Endicott, which beat the Nor’easters by an 8-1 score line last season.

“It was massive. Endicott is perennially one of the powerhouses of the conference, and it was the biggest pressure environment we’ve played in,” Davis said. “I was really pleased with the way we handled ourselves, and that really gave us a lot of confidence. That was a great win for us.”

The quick start is even more impressive considering the Nor’easters squad of 27 ”“ which includes 14 Mainers ”“ consists of 10 sophomores and eight freshmen. That includes sophomores Taylor Littlefield (of Sanford), Maria Philbrick (of Scarborough) and Katelyn Pierson (of Saco), each of whom have started all nine games so far.

“We still are full of young, fresh faces but they’re a really talented group,” Davis said. “We’re getting better each day as the new players mesh in with the returning. I’m really excited with the results on the field so far.”

Perhaps the most important newcomer has been forward Becca Murphy, a Durham, New Hampshire native who has scored seven goals in her first nine collegiate games, including a pair in the Nor’easters’ 3-2 win at Colby on Sept. 16 as UNE defeated the Mules for the first time in 17 tries.

“She’s a fabulous player, and she’s added a whole lot,” Davis said of Murphy, who has been named the CCC’s Rookie of the Week three times this fall. “We returned almost all of our firepower from last year, and then to have Becca come in and compliment so nicely, it gives us a whole new avenue of scoring that we didn’t have previously.”

In total, UNE has scored 20 goals in its first nine games of the season; last year, the Nor’easters scored just nine goals in its opening nine games, and only 25 overall in 19 contests.

“It changes the game tremendously when you find the back of the net,” Davis said. “Last year, we found ourselves chasing games because we weren’t scoring when given the opportunity. Our style hasn’t changed, but we’re a little more aggressive offensively.”

Much like the men’s team, the women’s squad is set to begin a significant home stand in which it will play five-straight home games over the next two weeks, starting Thursday night against Bates and continuing with crucial conference games against Wentworth, Nichols and Salve Regina.

“It’s great to be able to have this home stretch because the middle part of the season is for sure the toughest to negotiate,” Davis said. “We’ve still got a long way to go to be the team we want to be and the team we think we can be, but we’re getting better every time we step on the field. Hopefully, we can continue to do that.”

— Staff Writer Cameron Dunbar can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323 or cdunbar@journaltribune.com.