Game Summary

WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University men's soccer team found itself in the midst of its third straight 2-0 game Saturday afternoon.

Unlike the previous two, however, the Cardinals found themselves on the short end of the final score as St. John's scored a pair of first-half goals in beating SMU 2-0 — snapping the Cardinals' two-game winning streak and dashing any hopes they may have had of playing in the MIAC tournament.

"I really felt like we were ready to play today," said SMU coach Eric Luzzi. "In the locker room, our pregame, warm-ups — I really thought we were going to come out with an incredible amount of energy, and it just didn't happen."

It didn't help that that Johnnies broke the scoreless tie just four minutes into the game when Tyler Kodet netted his team-leading ninth goal, burying a shot past SMU goalkeeper Ryan O'Connor (San Diego, Calif.), who had stopped a point-blank shot by Tudor Flintham, only to have the rebound bounce right to Kodet.

"That goal really seemed to deflate us," said Luzzi, whose team had not given up a goal since early in the overtime period of a 2-1 loss to St. Thomas on Oct. 10. "We weren't able to create much offense, and the more we pressed, the more frustrated we seemed to get. Then, when they scored that second goal (off the foot of Jerry D'Alessandro at the 29:40 mark), it seemed like everyone decided that they wanted to fix (what was wrong) by themselves and we went totally away from all the things that we had been doing so well for the past month or so.

"This was not a very pretty game by an stretch of the imagination," said Luzzi, referring to the 42 fouls — including 10 yellow cards — that were called on the two teams. "It was an extremely physical game, and I think that got into our heads a bit."

O'Connor finished with six saves for the Cardinals, who close out their MIAC schedule at Bethel on Tuesday, before ending their season next weekend at Cal State-Hayward and UC Santa Cruz.

"We were really hoping to put a nice end to the home season — especially for our seniors," said Luzzi, whose three graduating seniors – Andy Kozar (Libertyville, Ill.), Mike Boland (Lake Zurich, Ill.) and Jeff Kunick (Eau Claire, Wis.) — were playing their final collegiate game at Ochrymowycz Field. "I'm not going to fault the effort, it's just the execution of our game plan that was lacking a bit."