WINONA, Minn. — For the fourth time in as many games this season, the Saint Mary's University men's soccer team scored first Sunday afternoon in its nonconference game against UW-Whitewater.

Unfortunately, for the third straight game, that one goal was all the Cardinals' offense could muster as UW-Whitewater scored seven unanswered goals en route to a 7-1 victory.

"I can't quite put my finger on what the problem is," admitted SMU coach Eric Luzzi. "We come out and get on the board first, but we just can't seem to maintain that intensity — we make a mistake and we're punished for it every time."

The Cardinals, who suffered their first loss — a 2-1 overtime heartbreaker to Central-Iowa on Saturday — got on the board first against UW-Whitewater, as freshman Mike Boland (Lake Zurich, Ill.) scored his team-leading fourth goal off an assist from Brent Anderson (Maple Grove, Minn.).

From there, however, the Cardinals' offense went into an early hibernation — and the Warhawks' offense came to life.

Aaron Rowley, Jim Hood and Bobby Anderson all scored first-half goals for the Warhawks (3-0-0), who took a 3-1 lead into the halftime break. The 10-minute intermission didn't do anything to slow the UW-Whitewater offense, which scored four goals in a 30-minute span to put the game away.

"We had some breakdowns in the Central game — both individually and as a team — and that cost us," explained Luzzi. "Against Whitewater … I don't know what to say. That was the best Division III soccer team I've ever seen. And for the first 30 minutes, we controlled the game. We played a great 30 minutes — we got on the board first and we played as well as I've seen us play all year.

"But in that last 15 minutes (of the first half), they pumped in three goals and we just never recovered," Luzzi continued. "Whitewater is a great team, but that's no excuse — I don't care how good a team is, we should never lose 7-1. There's no excuse for that."

Unfortunately for Luzzi, there's no answer to it, either.

"I can accept that Whitewater was the better team (Sunday), but I won't — and the players won't — accept that they are six goals better," Luzzi said. "I don't know what happened, I don't have the answer to that question. But I do know that every single player on this team is bound and determined never to let that happen again."

* THIS AND THAT: Eric Boland (Lake Zurich, Ill.) scored both SMU goals over the weekend, pushing his team-leading total to four. … All six goals the Cardinals have scored this season have come off the feet of freshmen. … SMU has managed just one goal in each of its last three games. … Two of the Cardinals' four games have gone to overtime — a 1-1 tie vs. Loras and Saturday's 2-1 loss to Central.