Game Summary

WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University men's soccer team opened its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference schedule in impressive fashion Wednesday afternoon, dropping Augsburg 3-1 at Ochrymowycz Field.

The Cardinals, who were winless in their last two games (a 1-1 tie with Simpson and a 1-0 loss to Coe), got things back on track in a big way on Wednesday, scoring a pair of first-half goals and getting an insurance tally by Jake Endemann (Woodridge, Ill.) early in the second half en route to the conference-opening win.

Shawn Stewart (McHenry, Ill.) got the Cardinals on the board first, netting his team-leading fourth goal at the 11-minute mark. Michael Kroll (Cary, Ill.) recorded his first goal of the season on a picture-perfect feed from Eric Brown (Cary, Ill.) 19 minutes later to give SMU a 2-0 advantage. Four minutes later, however, the Auggies (2-2-1 overall, 0-1-0 MIAC) cut the lead in half as Mike Elcano completed a three-way passing play with an 18-yard chip shot that sailed over SMU goalie Matt Peck's (Eau Claire, Wis.) head and into the net.

Endemann gave the Cardinals some breathing room with his first goal of the season 17 minutes into the second half, and SMU got a few favorable bounces — Elcano hit both the cross bar and the post, and was stopped on a breakaway, all in the final 15 minutes — to preserve the victory.

SMU (4-1-1 overall, 1-0-0 MIAC) finished with 16 shots on goal, while Peck stopped six of the Auggies' seven shots in pushing his record to 4-0-1.