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WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University men's soccer team needed just one goal to accomplish a pair of firsts Saturday afternoon at Ochrymowycz Field.

SMU made Jacob Bina's (West Salem, Wis.) goal 12 minutes into the opening half stand up, not only giving the Cardinals their first win of the season, but also giving Pete Watkins his first victory as SMU's head coach.

“It feels great for the guys to get it off their back,” Watkins said. “They have been looking over their shoulder a lot because of last year, so to get that first win off their back is really important.”

Bina (West Salem, Wis.) cashed in the Cardinals' only goal at 12:16 of the first half with a header off a corner kick from Mark Thompson (Madison, Wis.).

Juamaine Venter (Rochester, Minn.) tallied four shots for the Cardinals, while Bina, Thompson, and Zach Palma (Washburn, Wis.) each added two more.

The win was the second consecutive shutout for the Cardinals and goalkeeper Chris Williams (Chicago, Ill.), who picked up five saves Saturday.

“Chris has really emerged as a true leader on this team,” Watkins said. “He doesn't say too much, he just lets his play do the talking. And he made three saves that kept us in the game today…He's riding a shutout streak now and he deserves it. He's been playing great.”

Once again, the Cardinals had to play without some of their top scorers, but were able to find a way to push through the injuries.

“We've lost a lot of good players to injuries, but we have guys stepping in to those roles, so that's good,” Watkins said. “We have some freshmen that want that chance and they stepped on today. We had some guys…haven't seen a lot of minutes until today, but they stepped up and helped us win today.”

The Cardinals (1-2-1 overall) kick off their Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference season on Wednesday, traveling to St. Paul, Minn., for a 4 p.m. contest against St. Thomas.