WINONA, Minn. — Saint Mary's University goalkeeper did his part, stopping 12 of the 13 Macalester shots he faced during Friday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game at Ochrymowycz Field.
Unfortunately for the senior goalkeeper, the Cardinals' offensive couldn't hold up their end of the bargain, failing to score for the second straight game in a 1-0 loss to the Scots.
“It's the same old story,” said SMU coach Chris Dembiec. “Defensively, we are playing pretty well, but offensively we just aren't clicking at all — we aren't getting the ball to the outside and we aren't creating anything good scoring chances.
“We keep trying to stuff the ball up the middle, and that just isn't going to work against teams like Macalester.”
Szafranski kept the Cardinals even for the game's first 45 minutes, stopping all six Macalester shots, then stopping six more in the second half.
The Scots finally broke through the Szafranski wall 20 minutes into the second half, as Macalester's Ryan Marshall took a feed from Stephen Murphy-Logue and laced a shot that beat the SMU keeper to his right for the game's only goal.
“Jon played a great game — he did everything he could. But matter what he does, if you don't get any offensive chances, you aren't going to win,” said Dembiec, whose team was held without a shot on goal in falling to 0-4-1 in the MIAC and 4-6-2 overall. “We've got a find a way to work out of this (offensive) funk, and we have to do it in a hurry.”
The Cardinals return to action Wednesday, playing host to St. Olaf in a 7 p.m. conference game at Ochrymowycz Field.
