By DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
 
NORTHFIELD, Minn. — With a steady downpour and temperatures hovering in the upper 40s throughout, the Saint Mary's University men's soccer team's game at St. Olaf Tuesday afternoon was downright miserable.
 
And a trio of second-half St. Olaf goals certainly didn't help matters.
 
The Oles broke a 1-1 deadlock by scoring three times in a 19-minute span midway through the game's final 45 minutes, lifting St. Olaf to a 4-1 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory over the Cardinals at Rolf Melby Field.
 
The Oles wasted little time getting the scoring started, netting the game's first goal — off the foot of Sani Faird — just two minutes into the first half.
 
It took the Cardinals six minutes to pull even, as Armin Jasenac (Brooklyn Center (Minn.) took a feed from Robbie Sobczak (Cloquet, Minn.) and rifled a shot over St. Olaf goalkeeper Hamza Osman and into the upper left-hand corner for his third of the season — and second in as many games.
 
The game remained deadlocked until the 54th minute, when Keith Loukas headed a Thierno Gueye free kick over the outstretched arms of Cardinal goalkeeper Jimmy Perreault (Batavia, Ill.) to give the Oles the lead for good.
 
Faird would net his second and third of the game less than three minutes apart with less than 20 minutes remaining in regulation to ice the victory.
 
Perreault ­— who stopped a career-high 12 shots in Saturday's 4-3 conference win over Augsburg — finished with four saves for Saint Mary's, while Osman stopped two of the Cardinals' three shots on goal.
 
The Cardinals (1-2-0 MIAC, 4-5-0 overall) return home to Ochrymowycz Field on Saturday, playing host to Saint John's in a 1 p.m. MIAC contest. The Oles (2-2-0 MIAC, 5-5-0 overall), meanwhile, hit the road on Saturday, traveling to St. Peter, Minn., for a 1 p.m. conference showdown against Gustavus.