vs.
1		0

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WINONA, Minn. — Saint Mary's University women's soccer coach Chris Dembiec can't predict the future, but when his team took the field for the first 10-minute overtime in his team's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opener against St. Catherine, he said, "there will be a winner."

Two minutes later, Bridgette Baggio (Glenview, Ill.) made good on Dembiec's promise, burying the game's only goal off a rebound on a shot from teammate Bethany Kaufmann (Green Bay, Wis.), as the Cardinals beat the Wildcats 1-0 at Ochrymowycz Field.

"I wasn't worried at all (heading into the overtime period," said Dembiec, whose team improved to 5-0-0 overall  with the win. "We were playing so well and controlling the play, I honestly believed it was only a matter of time before we punched one in.

"We did not play exceptionally well early, but once we got things going, we were pretty dominating."

Pretty dominating?

The Cardinals held St. Catherine to just one s shot on goal, and their smothering defense made life easy for goalkeeper Marianna Sanchez (Puebla, Mexico), who earned the one-save shutout
 — her first  of the season.

And that was just half the story.

Offensively, the Cardinals attempted 23 shots, including nine that found the goal — none more important than Baggio's two minutes into the extra period.

"It doesn't matter if we score 10 goals, or we score one goal, we want to win games, and today, one goal was enough to give us the win," said Dembiec. "The biggest thing for us right now is, we have to relax a bit more out there — we have what I call goal-side anxiety, we panic a bit around  the goal, or we make a pass that no one can handle.

"This was a big, big win for us," Dembiec added. "To get that first conference win under our belts is huge. We didn't want to settle for a tie — I thought we played too well for any outcome other than a win."

And, thanks to Baggio, that's exactly what the Cardinals got.