Game Summary

NORTHFIELD, Minn. — Eric Luzzi had just one word to say after his Saint Mary's University men's soccer team snapped its season-opening five-game winless streak Saturday afternoon: "Finally."

The Cardinals finally scored a goal — their first since the second half of their season-opening game against Simpson — and they finally got a win for their efforts, as SMU scored single goals in each half en route to a 2-1 win over Carleton Saturday.

"This was a good win for us — we needed a performance like this, and we needed to get the win for our effort," said Luzzi, whose team evened its MIAC record at 1-1-0 with the victory. "The first half was probably the best half of soccer we've played all season. We didn't play poorly in the second half, it's just the Carleton pressed and pressed and pressed in those last 45 minutes and we just had to fight them off."

Matthew Montgomery (Columbus, Ohio) netted his first collegiate goal less than 20 minutes into the opening half as SMU took a 1-0 lead into the locker room at the half.

Mike Schmitt (Woodridge, Ill.) — owner of SMU's lone goal through its first five games — pushed the Cardinals' lead to 2-0 with an unassisted tally 13 minutes into the second half. The Knights cut the lead to one, 2-1, on a goal by Thomas Ashton 10 minutes after Schmitt's goal, but that was as close as Carleton would get as Saint Mary's hung on for its first win of the season.

"Mike's goal was a big goal in that it gave us a little breathing room," said Luzzi. "But then they came right back and scored to make it a one-goal game again, so it was a real battle out there from start to finish."

Goalkeeper Ryan O'Connor (San Diego, Minn.) finished with four saves for the Cardinals (1-1-0 MIAC, 1-4-1 overall), while Carleton netminder Brian Aleinikoff also stopped four shots.

"It's nice to finally get that first win, but more importantly, it was a conference win, and that's huge," said Luzzi. "If this were our bye date and we went out and beat someone 4-0, it wouldn't be so special.

"The fact that we had to work so hard, and really battle to earn it, makes the win extra-sweet," Luzzi added. "It's encouraging — we finally put together a game where we played up to our potential.

"Hopefully that's a sign of good things to come."