WINONA, Minn. — Saint Mary's University women's soccer coach Eric Zimmerman has a few words of advice for the rest of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference coaches: Don't let Carleton's record fool you.
The Knights are good.
Very good.
Zimmerman and Co. learned that first hand Saturday afternoon, as the Knights — despite their 1-4-1 record coming into the contest — played like the team that won the MIAC Tournament title and earned a berth in last year's NCAA national tournament, scoring a pair of first-half goals en route to a 2-0 conference win over SMU at Ochrymowycz Field.
“They are good — they're going to be right there near the top of the conference at the end of the year,” said Zimmerman, whose team had its season-opening five-game unbeaten streak (4-0-1) snapped with Saturday's loss. “They really took it to us a bit in the first half — they were much more aggressive than we were, and when we made those two defensive errors, they made us pay.”
Cassie Burke got the Knights on the board in the game's 10th minute, behind the Cardinal defense and beating SMU goalkeeper Mariana Sanchez (Puebla, Mexico). Burke's goal was the first allowed by Sanchez since SMU's season-opener against Simpson and snapped the senior's scoreless streak at 386:43.
Niki Tomila gave Carleton a little breathing room, scoring her second of the season 28 minutes later. Zoe Suche headed a ball over the SMU defenders and onto the foot of Tomila, who beat Sanchez to her right.
“You've got to tip your hat to Carleton — they played a great first half, and that was the difference,” said Zimmerman, whose team is back in action Tuesday, traveling to Macalester for a 7:30 p.m. conference game. “I thought we played much better in the second half. We created some more scoring opportunities, we possessed the ball much better — I was very proud of our effort in the second half.
“Now we need to play like that for 90 minutes, rather than just 45.”
