WINONA, Minn. — For the Saint Mary's University men's soccer team, it was the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat all wrapped into one Friday afternoon.
Unfortunately, the thrill of victory was snatched from the Cardinals' grasp in the game's final 13 minutes, as Upper Iowa scored twice in a 10-minute span to erase a 1-0 deficit and hand the Cardinals an agonizing 2-1 nonconference loss at Ochrymowycz Field.
“That's a frustrating loss,” admitted SMU coach Chris Dembiec. “Defensively, we played very, very well, but in the midfield, we weren't as good as we need to be, and offensively, we've got to do a better job of creating scoring opportunities — and then capitalizing on them.”
The Cardinals didn't create many offensive chances, but they made the most of them, as Ryan Rademacher (La Crosse, Wis.) scored his second goal in as many games, beating Upper Iowa goalie Andy Youde with a laser shot on a direct free kick from just outside the box in the game's 24th minute.
It would be SMU's lone shot on goal until late in the second half, but the Cardinals made that one shot — and one goal — stand up until late in the second half.
Then disaster struck, as the Cardinals scored their second goal of the game — only this time it was into their own goal, as an errant clearing shot beat a stunned SMU goalkeeper Jon Szafranski (Barrington, Ill.) and pulled the Peacocks even with 13 minutes left.
And things went from bad to worse, as Upper Iowa was awarded a penalty kick with 2:42 remaining in regulation, and Derek Oelmann outguessed Szafranski and put the ball into the lower left-hand corner for the game-winning tally.
“It's a tough way to lose,” said Dembiec, whose team will play its fourth game in six games on Sunday, traveling to Sheboygan, Wis., for a 12:30 p.m. nonconference game against Lakeland. “It's certainly the type of game that we played well enough to win, we just were on the wrong end of two very unlucky breaks — and that was the difference.
“We've still got some things we need to tighten up a bit, but overall I was pretty pleased with our performance — especially on the defensive end.
