Game Summary
ST. PAUL, Minn. — When the Saint Mary's University men's soccer team stepped on the field Saturday, the Cardinals had not played a game since their 4-2 win over Concordia a week earlier — a game in which Mike Schmitt (Woodridge, Ill.) recorded his first collegiate hat trick.
And the week off certainly didn't slow down the Cardinals' junior sharpshooter, as Schmitt — the reigning MIAC Player of the Week — picked up right where he left off Saturday, scoring his team-leading sixth goals of the season 27 minutes into the first half of Saturday's conference game against St. Thomas.
Unfortunately for Schmitt and the Cardinals, scoring a lot of goals has also been the forte of the Tommies' Adam Harding, as Harding netted his team-best ninth and 10th goals — the second two minutes into overtime — as UST escaped with a 2-1 win.
"It was a typical MIAC soccer game — either team could have come away with the win," said SMU coach Eric Luzzi. "We had our chances to score, they had their chances. We hit the post, they hit the cross bar. Their keeper made a couple of big saves, our keeper made some big saves.
"It really was one of those games that could have easily turned out in our favor — they capitalized on one of their chances, and we didn't."
Schmitt got the Cardinals on the board at 27:41 of the first half, and SMU held that 1-0 advantage until the 49-minute mark, when Harding scored the first of his two goals to knot the game at 1-1. Harding then iced the victory two minutes into overtime.
Ryan O'Connor (San Diego, Calif.) finished with 11 saves for the Cardinals, while a pair of UST goalkeepers stopped eight of the nine shots SMU put on goal.
"I certainly can't fault our effort, we did a lot of good things out there — there were a lot of positives in our performance," said Luzzi. "But in the same respect, we played pretty well against Macalester (a 2-0 loss), we played pretty well against Gustavus (a 3-1 loss) and we played pretty well again today — but when it's all said and done, it's still three losses.
"The effort the guys are putting forth is outstanding, it's just tough when they aren't being rewarded for those efforts."
