DEPERE, Wis. — Through three games, the Saint Mary's University men's soccer team has only allowed one goal.
Unfortunately, that one goal came Saturday — and SMU's offense didn't have an answer, as St. Norbert scored the game's only goal with five minutes remaining in regulation to beat SMU 1-0 and snap the Cardinals' season-opening two-game winning streak.
“It was a tough loss because it was one of those games that we certainly played well enough to win — especially early on,” said SMU coach Chris Dembiec. “I thought we had the better of the offensive chances in the first half, but in the second half we just seemed to run out of steam, and over the last 15 minutes or so we were just trying to hang on.”
Late in the second half, the Green Knights finally did something that Martin Luther and Crown before them couldn't — put a ball past SMU goalkeeper Jon Szafranski (Barrington, Ill.).
The Cardinal senior stopped the first three St. Norbert shots he faced Saturday, but the third, off the foot of SNC's Ben Vanden Avond, beat him to the far post to account for the game's only scoring.
“It was a very even game,” said Dembiec, whose team opens Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play on Tuesday, hosting Bethel in a 7 p.m. game at Ochrymowycz Field. “Unfortunately, we made one defensive mistake late in the game, and (St. Norbert) capitalized on it.”
