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Cardinal Roster
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Cardinal Statistics
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Cardinal Schedule
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MIAC Standings
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MIAC Statistics
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| 2006 Records: 1-5-0 MIAC, 4-7-0 Overall |
| Recent Results: St. Thomas 2, Saint Mary's 1 / Details |
| Upcoming Events: Wed., Oct. 11: SMU at St. Olaf, 4 p.m. Sat., Oct. 14: SMU at Augsburg, 7 p.m. |
| This and That: The Cardinals' loss to St. Thomas was their fifth one-goal loss in their last six games. … Andy Neu (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) netted his third goal of the season to account for SMU's goal vs. the Tommies. … Mike Schmitt (Woodridge, Ill.) was held scoreless vs. the Tommies, marking just the third time this season the SMU senior has been held without at least one point. … Schmitt also had his goal-scoring streak snapped at three games. … Schmitt’s nine goals are just one shy of the career-best 10 he netted a year ago. … Schmitt also leads the team in assists (4) and points (22). … The Cardinals have gotten scoring from 14 different players. … The Cardinals have scored 26 goals in 11 games — seven more than SMU scored during its complete 16-game schedule of a year ago, and the most since SMU netted 27 in 2002. … SMU has scored two or more goals in seven of its 11 games. … Thirteen of the goals given up by the Cardinals have come in the second half — including both vs. St. Thomas. |
as UST blows past Cardinals with 2 2nd-half goals
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Andy Neu
Netted SMU's lone goal vs. St. Thomas |
Then the teams switched ends.
And the Tommies — and the wind — blew away the Cardinals.
UST scored a pair of goals 15 minutes apart, then held off a late SMU rally to hand the Cardinals a 2-1 setback.
"It may be a new day and a new game, but it's the same old story," said SMU coach Chris Dembiec, whose team dropped its fifth one-goal game in its last six contests. "I don't know what it is, but we just don't seem to kick our game into gear until we have a hole to dig out of.
"Once we fell behind (2-0 midway through the second half), we finally started doing some of the things we've been working on — but by that time, it's too late."
With the wind at their backs, the Cardinals struggled to generate any offense in the game's opening 45 minutes, but SMU's defense held firm, as the two teams took a 0-0 tie into the intermission.
Unlike the Cardinals, however, UST made the most of its time playing down-wind, attempting 12 second-half shots — including shots by Matt Michalik and Andy Gikling that beat SMU goalkeeper Jon Szafranski (Barrington, Ill.) and gave the Tommies at 2-0 advantage with just over 20 minutes remaining in regulation.
The Cardinals put an end to UST goalkeeper Daniel Hutton's shutout bid — and took their first step out of their most recent hole — as Andy Neu (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) netted his third goal of the season at the 78-minute mark.
That was as close as SMU would get, however, as the Tommies held on to beat the Cardinals for the 34th time in the teams' 41 meetings all-time.
"I'm at a loss — I don't know what it takes for this team to play a full, 90-minute game," said Dembiec. "I thought the last 20 minutes of the second half, we played extremely well — we did the things we wanted to do and it paid off with Andy's goal.
"The problem is, you can't put yourselves in two-goal holes like that and expect to be able to dig out — it's just too hard."