WINONA, Minn. — Through their first two games, Saint Mary's University women's soccer coach Dan Blank preached that, as soon as his Cardinals punched in that first goal — look out, the floodgates were going to open.

How right he was.

After failing to score a goal in their first two games this season, the Cardinals erupted for five goals on Friday — three more than they scored all of last year combined – en route to a 5-1 win over Marian.

Problem was, less than 24 hours later, the Cardinals' offense returned to hibernation faster than Punxsutawney Phil after seeing his shadow.

UW-Oshkosh erupted for four goals in a 10-minute span to start the second half in cruising to a 6-0 nonconference win over the Cardinals on Saturday.

"It was kind of a crazy two days," admitted Blank, whose team takes a 1-3-0 overall record into today's nonconference game against UW-La Crosse. "Marian and Oshkosh are two totally different teams. Everything in the game of soccer is dictated by pressure. Against Marian, we weren't pressured much, and we were able to string some nice passing combinations together. And then against Oshkosh, (the Titans) pressured us all over the field and we didn't handle it well.

"Oshkosh is a very good team — even better than they were last year," continued Blank, whose team lost to the Titans 9-0 in their season-opener a year ago. "But I also thought that if we played up to our abilities, we could hang with them."

And the Cardinals did — for the first half.

Boasting a 2-0 lead, UW-Oshkosh erupted for four goals in the first 10 minutes of the second half in handing SMU its third shutout loss in its four games this season.

"It was like we couldn't do anything to stop them (at the start of the second half)," said Blank of the Titans' four-goal outburst. "Those four goals just took the wind right out of our sails."

The Cardinals had plenty of wind in their sails on Friday, as they snapped a 15-game losing streak, dating back to Sept. 15, 2002, when SMU beat Benedictine 1-0.

"That was a huge win for everyone on this team," said Blank of the 5-1 win. "We needed a breakthrough game like that. "

Kelli Mooney (Maple Grove, Minn.) picked up two of the Cardinals' five goals, while Becky Dougherty (Maple Grove, Minn.), Diane Schirmers (Prior Lake, Minn.) and Mandy Downing (Mendota Heights, Minn.) all posted their first collegiate goals.

Mooney and Schirmers scored four minutes apart midway through the first half as SMU took a 2-0 advantage into the halftime intermission. Mooney and Dougherty then pushed the advantage to 4-0, before Marian's Trista Michels broke the Cardinals' shutout bid, with Downing then closing out the scoring with less than eight minutes remaining in regulation.

"It was so good to see us get our offense going (vs. Marian)," Blank said. "It would have been nice to see us keep that going (against Oshkosh)."

Which leaves Blank to ponder one question heading into today's game — which Cardinal offense will show up?