WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University men's soccer roster is littered with new faces, but if they continue to play the way they have in the Cardinals' first two games, they will be household names before too long.

With freshman Mike Boland (Lake Zurich, Ill.) scoring the Cardinals' lone goal eight minutes into the first half, SMU was forced to settle for a 1-1 tie in its nonconference game against Loras Saturday afternoon.

"We did not play particularlily well," admitted SMU coach Eric Luzzi, whose team moved to 1-0-1 with the tie. "And for us to play as poorly as we did, and still come away with a tie against a very good Loras team, that's encouraging."

As has been the early-season play of his freshmen.

The Cardinals have scored four goals in their first two games — and all four have come off the foot of freshmen.

Boland has scored two and Nate Pattee (Winona, Minn.) has scored two, while two of SMU's three asissts this season have also come from freshmen — Adam Sapp (Winona, Minn.) and Andy Kozar (Libertyville, Ill.). The third assist, by the way, came from sophomore transfer Brian Reddish (Crystal Lake, Ill.).

"Our young players are stepping up and getting the job done," praised Luzzi, whose team had opened the season with a 3-1 win over Viterbo last Monday. "It's pretty hard to imagine scoring four goals and having three assists, and have them all come from newcomers to your team."

But that doesn't mean the veterans aren't pulling their weight.

"Every player on this team is contributing in one way or another," said Luzzi. "Our back four defenders are doing some amazing things. We're getting great goaltending, our midfield is sold, and we've got eight forwards who can all play — no matter what combination we put on the field."

Despite the impressive showings in their first two games, life isn't perfect in the Cardinals' camp.

"We've still got a lot of work to do," Luzzi warned. "It's nice to get off to a good start (record-wise) like we have, but we've got a long way to go. My biggest concern right now is our inconsistency — both in practices and in games. We can't come out and play the way we did (against Loras) and expect to win.

"We need to be at our best at all times, and we're not there yet."