Game Summary / GameDay Preview

ST. PETER, Minn. — When the Saint Mary's University men's soccer team squared off against nationally ranked UW-Oshkosh last Saturday, the Cardinals' defense was up to the task, holding the high-powered Titan offense to just one goal in dropping a 1-0 nonconference decision.

When the Cardinals took the field against Gustavus on Tuesday, coach Chris Dembiec was hoping his defense would put together a repeat performance — and his offense would finally get shifted out of neutral.

Unfortunately, Gustavus had other ideas.

The Gusties scored three times — and held the Cardinals off the board for a second straight game — as Gustavus handed SMU a 3-0 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference setback.

“It's tough, we just can't seem to get everything clicking at the same time,” said Dembiec, whose team falls to 0-3-0 in the MIAC and 2-8-0 overall with the loss. “Defensively, we played very well against Oshkosh last Saturday and did a nice job again today.

“We just can't seem to get anything going offensively,” Dembiec added. “We're just not connecting enough passes together — we're keeping the ball for maybe two or three passes, lose it and have to defend again. We're just not relieving enough pressure on our defense.”

The Gusties grabbed a 1-0 lead with less than five minutes remaining in the opening half, as Brian Simons scored off a corner kick to give GAC the one-goal lead heading into the break. The Gusties' used a pair of second-half goals — the first on a goal by Benjamin Ceder and the second off the foot of Doug Frey — to seal the win.

“I thought we were playing pretty well in the second half, but down by a goal, we had to kind of throw defense to the wind and push forward to try and get that tying goal,” Dembiec said. “(Gustavus) caught us a couple of times on quick counters and that was the ball game.

“It's not that we're playing that poorly — we are doing a lot of very good things,” added Dembiec. “We just have to keep battling and hopefully things will start breaking our way.”

The Cardinals are back in action on Saturday, returning home after playing their last three contests on the road for a 1 p.m. conference contest against Concordia at Ochrymowycz Field.