WINONA, Minn. — They're getting closer, but the Saint Mary's University men's soccer team is still searching for that elusive first win of the 2004 season.

Fueled by a pair of first-half goals, the Cardinals rebounded from last Thursday's season-opening 3-0 loss to Loras with a hard-fought, 2-2 tie against Edgewood last Sunday afternoon.

"(The tie) is a little frustrating, because I really feel we were the better team," said SMU coach Eric Luzzi. "We didn't play that poorly, it's just that we didn't do the things we worked on all week in practice."

And that, Luzzi said, has got to stop.

"It's like watching last year all over again," Luzzi said. "We spend the entire week of practice working on things, and they look good and we execute them well, but when game day rolls around, we don't do any of the things we worked on."

Edgewood wasted little time getting on the scoreboard, as Ross Hannon beat SMU goalkeeper Bob Endemann (Woodridge, Ill.) just eight minutes into the opening half.

From there, however, the rest of the first half belonged to the Cardinals, who got goals from Brent Anderson (Maple Grove, Minn.) and Mike Schmitt (Woodridge, Ill.) just seven minutes apart late in the half to give SMU a 2-1 advantage at the half.

SMU maintained that one-goal lead through much of the game's final 45 minutes, only to have Edgewood's Shaun Glynn get the equalizer with less than three minutes remaining in regulation.

"Hopefully, these first two games have been a bit of an eye-opener for these guys," said Luzzi. "Loras is a very good team, and (Edgewood) is a decent team. Both games, had we played up to our potential — had we stuck to the game plan that we worked so hard in practice to implement — we could easily have come away with wins.

"We've got a week to prepare (for next Saturday's home opener vs. Simpson), hopefully we'll be able to put the same team on the field (against the Storm) that we see in practice every day."