Game Summary

WINONA, Minn. — Scoring drought … what scoring drought?

Losing streak … what losing streak?

It's amazing how quickly the past can be forgotten.

The Saint Mary's University men's soccer team finally put an end to two season-long streaks Saturday afternoon at Ochrymowycz Field, as the Cardinals used single goals in each half to beat Augsburg 2-0 — snapping their seven-game losing streak, as well as a nearly 656-minute goalless drought.

"You hate to use clichés, but it really does feel like the monkey is finally off our backs," said SMU coach Eric Luzzi, whose team scored 18 minutes into their season-opener against Pacific Lutheran on Aug. 30, but hadn't scored since. "We've dominated play in a lot of games, but each time we came up empty.

"Today, we dominated, and converted on some of our chances."

Dominated? Now that's an understatement.

The Cardinals controlled play from the opening whistle, never allowing Augsburg to get into any offensive rhythm.

Just how dominating were the Cardinals? SMU goalkeeper Tyler Nelson (Racine, Wis.) touched the ball four times in the opening 34 minutes — and all four times it was a pass back from one of his teammates. The Auggies did managed one shot on goal in the second half, but Nelson easily turned it away en route to his first collegiate victory, and shutout.

While the Cardinals' suffocating defense stymied the Auggie attackers, SMU's offense was having a field day at the other end of the field, pelting Augsburg goalie Lucas Grant with 20 shots — including a pair of goals from Brian Reddish (Crystal Lake, Ill.).

Reddish put SMU on the board at the 41:53 mark, taking a feed from Brady Knudsen (Racine, Wis.) and beating Grant with a shot in the lower right corner. The SMU duo hooked up again in the second half, as Reddish gave the Cardinals some breathing room with his third goal of the season at the 85:03 mark.

"It's great to finally see us score some goals, but the way we dominated — and the amount of chances we had — we probably should have scored four or five goals, at least," said Luzzi. "Obviously it's great to finally get this win, but we can't get too emotional, we've still got a lot of soccer left in the season.

"This was just one win."

One very, very big win.