Game Summary
COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. — With his team stuck in the midst of a four-game losing streak, Saint Mary's University men's soccer coach Chris Dembiec was in dire need of something positive when his Cardinals took the field Saturday afternoon against Saint John's.
And he got just that.
In fact, the Cardinals' performance against the high-powered Johnnies boasted plenty of silver linings.
Unfortunately, the end result wasn't one of them, as Saint John's scored the game's only goal with less than 13 minutes remaining in regulation to hand SMU a 1-0 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference setback.
"I thought this was one of the better games we've played all year," said Dembiec, whose team has now lost seven one-goal games this season. "Saint John's is by far the most athletic team we've faced, and we did a nice job of keeping them away from our net and off the scoreboard.
"The frustrating part is that, despite how well we played, the end result is still a loss," Dembiec added. "We certainly played well enough to win, we just came up one goal short — again."
Unlike their previous four games, however, the Cardinals were not staring at a two-goal deficit before finally kicking their game out of neutral, The Cardinals were in high gear from start to finish — and that pleased Dembiec most of all.
"Our biggest problem all year has been putting ourselves behind the eight ball by falling behind by two goals before starting to play our game," the first-year coach said. "Today, we were solid right from the start. And when you aren't spending all your energy trying to come back from a two-goal deficit, it makes it that much easier to play your game."
The Johnnies put an end to the scoreless battle in the 87th minute, as Kellen Groves beat SMU goalkeeper Jon Szafranski (Barrington, Ill.). Szafranski finished with 12 saves, while SJU goalkeeper Matt Sundberg stopped all four shots he faced.
"We didn't create as many scoring opportunities as I would have liked, but the ones we did create were quality chances," said Dembiec, whose team closes out its season with home games against Bethel (Tuesday) and UW-Whitewater (Sunday). "We did a lot of good things today,
"I think we've been making some very good strides of late, and, hopefully, that will continue as we close out our season next week."
