Game Summary

WINONA, Minn. — In Eric Luzzi's perfect world, the Saint Mary's University men's soccer team would have been playing Macalester for the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship in the teams' season-finale Friday evening.

Instead, the Scots had already locked up its fifth MIAC crown in the last six seasons, and the Cardinals were hoping for a third straight win that would get them over the .500 mark for the season.

But there was still plenty of motivation for the Cardinals — after all, they were playing the reigning conference champs.

And Luzzi could think of nothing better than to knock the Scots off on their home turf.

In a perfect world, the Cardinals would have done just that. Unfortunately, in the real world, the Scots proved to be too much for the Cardinals, scoring twice in the second half en route to a 2-0 victory.

After playing to a 0-0 deadlock for 45 minutes, Macalester finally broke through at the 64-minute mark on a goal by Andrew Wissler. Michael Melamed made it 2-0 11 minutes later, beating SMU goalkeeper Josh Simonson (Chanhassen, Minn.) off a picture-perfect feed from Wissler.

Simonson finished with a pair of saves in the defensive battle, while Macalester goalkeeper Michael Madigan stopped all three SMU shots.

The Cardinals closed out their season with a 5-4-1 MIAC mark and an 8-8-2 overall record.