It’s a cliché, but for SF State men’s soccer, it really is a tale of two halves.

The Gators went 1-1 this weekend, which is what they’ve done every weekend since Sept. 1, posting a split 3-3 conference record (6-4 overall) at the halfway mark of the season.

Win one, lose one is the theme here — which is an improvement from last season, when the team posted a 3-5-2 record by the halfway point. But playing .500 ball probably won’t be good enough to make the California Collegiate Athletic Association postseason, something they’ve never done under Gator coach Joe Hunter.

“For us to be at the halfway point at 6-4 (overall) is good,” Hunter said. “(The players) are realizing they’re capable of good things. I told them ... ‘Enough is enough. We’re going to play better than this and we’re capable of it,’ and so getting into the second half with a winning a record is important.”

The Gators played their worst soccer of the season in Sunday’s first half against the Humboldt State Lumberjacks, but clawed to a 3-2 win after a near-perfect second half. On Friday, it was the reverse as they conceded two soft goals after the break and lost 3-2 to rival Sonoma State University.

“You play the game for two halves,” Hunter said after Sunday’s come-from-behind win.

“We made some adjustments.”

Against Humboldt the Gators looked sloppy and disorganized until Hunter shifted midfielder Casey Poston into an attacking role and adjusted the midfield. But senior defender Benno Nagel, who scored the game’s second equalizer, noted that the comeback was in part inspired by a half-time chat.

“We played a horrible first half,” Nagel said. “We were lazy and they were beating us physically. We had a little talk at half-time and came out in the second determined to pick up the tempo.”

Hunter provided that little talk.

“I needed to get them fired up a little bit,” he said. “Sometimes you’ll get loud and firm with them, but this time it was just a very quiet, ‘guys ... this is what you need to do,’ and they responded. They made good decisions in the second half.”

One player looking toward a big finish to the year is forward Dylan Glass, who this weekend notched his seventh and eighth goals of the season. Glass is on course to break the SF State individual season goal-scoring record of 13 set by Pete Mangini in 1980.

“I’m still a few away,” Glass said. “I mean, obviously it’s not the first thing I think about because all I want is for the team to make the playoffs. But if I can break the record, that’s all good to me. I want to score as many as I can.”

But Glass, a sophomore, admitted to a frustrating first half Sunday.

“If we can play that bad and still only be down by one goal, imagine what we could do if we play well,” Glass said. “It was basically, we have 45 minutes, it’s a long game, let’s go back out there and work hard.”

Hunter said his team is tiring after the season-opening six-game road trip. But like Sunday’s half-time adjustments, the Gators’ coach hopes to make changes in the second half of the season, which begins Friday against non-CCAA Holy Names University. Conference play resumes Sunday against third-place Cal State Monterey Bay, also at .500 and chasing playoff-quality soccer.

“We’ve got to find a way here. the guys are a little heavy legged, so we’re going to change things up in training a bit,” Hunter said. “We’ve got to freshen up. Halfway is when as a team, you either go (down) or you’re going to take it up a level. We can’t stay at the same level, so I hope (Sunday’s) second half bodes well for where we’re at.”

Briefly: SF State’s men’s soccer team is ranked top-ten regionally for the fifth consecutive week, while also boasting three players leading individual rankings.

The National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA)/adidas NCAA Division II Far West Regional poll this week placed the Gators sixth, down one place from last week. Fellow California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) teams Sonoma State University and Cal State L.A. ranked third and fourth, respectively.

Gators’ leading scorer and sophomore Glass, named SF State Athlete of the Week for his two goals this weekend, is tied for first place in goals (eight) and game-winning goals (four) in the CCAA.

Sophomore Wes Whitt leads the conference in assists (five, three-way tie), while junior goalkeeper Israel Cisneros has the highest saves-per-game average (six).