• SLOW START: The Cardinals surrendered a pair of goals seven minutes apart midway through the opening half in dropping a 2-0 decision to St. Scholastica on Wednesday. It was the first meeting between the two teams as conference foes.
• HITTING THE ROAD: Saturday's nonconference game at UW-Eau Claire if the first of two straight road games for the Cardinals, who travel to St. Peter, Minn., next Tuesday to take on Gustavus, before returning home on Oct. 2 to host Concordia.
• HOME SWEET HOME: Wednesday's game against St. Scholastica was the second of back-to-back home games for the Cardinals. The Cardinals are 2-2-0 on their home field this season, having defeated Martin Luther (5-0) and Edgewood (3-1), while falling to Saint John's and St. Scholastica.
• KING OF THE PK: Eli Szymanski (La Crosse, Wis.) scored his third penalty kick goal of the season against Carleton on Sept. 15. Szymanski scored two of Saint Mary's three goals in its Sept. 4 win over Edgewood — both coming on penalty kicks. Szymanski has now scored Saint Mary's last seven PK goals.
• OFFENSIVE LEADERS: With his first-half goal against Carleton on Sept. 15, Szymanski pushed his team lead in goals to four, two more than Landon Pendleton (Mobile, Ala.). Diego Rivera (Chicago, Ill.), who assisted on Szymanski's goal against Simpson on Sept. 11, leads the team with two helpers, while Szymanski has the team lead in points with nine. … Syzmanski's four goals this season give him 18 for his four-year collegiate career, ranking the senior ninth all-time
• CAREER FIRSTS: Pendleton, Roberto Bontempi (Santos, Brazil), and Alex Keeler (Antioch, Ill.) all scored their first collegiate goals in the Cardinals' 5-0 win over Martin Luther on Sept. 6. … Pendleton netted a pair of goals vs. the Knights for his first career two-goal game. … Jack Hurley (Homewood, Ill.) scored his first collegiate goal in SMU's 3-1 win over Edgewood on Sept. 4.
• TAKING THE SHOT: Szymanski has attempted a team-high 17 shots, five more than Cerim Palislamovic (Jacksonville, Fla.). Szymanski and Palislamovic share the team lead with nine shots on goal.
• BETWEEN THE PIPES: Daniel Sessler (Brookfield, Ill.) — who stopped all four shots he faced against Simpson on Sept. 11 en route to the first shutout of the season and second of his career — equaled his career-high with seven saves against St. Scholastica Wednesday. … Sessler has now stopped seven shots in a game four times. … Sessler enters Saturday's matchup against UW-Eau Claire boasting a 1.59 goals-against-average and a .784 save percentage. The sophomore has stopped 29 shots in 452:45.
• CAREER FIRST, PART II: Jacob Wing (Verona, Wis.) earned his first career win — in his first collegiate start — in the Cardinals' 3-1 win over Edgewood on Sept. 4. Wing made two saves, with the lone goal coming on a penalty kick. … Wing and Connor Petrich (Arden Hills, Minn.) combined on a two-save shutout against Martin Luther on Sept. 6. Wing stopped both shots he faced in 71:38, while Petrich did not face a shot in 18:22 of relief.
• THE END: The Cardinals had their three-game winning streak come to a screeching halt on Wednesday, as Carleton scored two goals in less than two minutes early in the first half in handing Saint Mary's a 2-1 setback in the teams' conference opener. After opening the season with a 3-0 loss to the University of Dubuque, the Cardinals had answered with wins over Edgewood (3-1), Martin Luther (5-0), and Simpson (1-0).
• STREAKING ALONG: The Cardinals have now put together a three-game winning streak for the second time in three seasons. The last time SMU won four consecutive games was in 2000, when the Cardinals beat Coe (2-1), Central-Iowa (2-0), Loras (2-0), and St. Thomas (1-0).
• NAILBITERS: The Cardinals battled Saint John's to a scoreless deadlock through 90 minutes of regulation last Saturday, but the Johnnies would score the game's only goal less than three minutes into the first overtime in dealing SMU a 1-0 setback. It was the third time in the last six months that SMU and SJU have played a game decided by one goal or less. The two teams battled to a 0-0 draw on April 21, 2021, with the Cardinals winning the rematch 2-1 four days later.
• OFFENSIVE RESURGENCE: The Cardinals scored as many goals against Martin Luther on Sept. 6 (5) as they had in all five of their games combined a year ago.
• PERFECTION: With their 5-0 win over Martin Luther on Sept. 6, the Cardinals improved to 6-0-0 all-time against the Knights. Saint Mary's has outscored MLC 21-0 in its six meetings. |
• COMING IN RED HOT: The Blugolds head into Saturday's home contest against the Cardinals riding a two-game winning streak, having dispatched of both UW-Superior and Ripon in their last two contests.
• PLENTY OF FIRSTS: The 2021 season is the inaugural season for UW-Eau Claire men's soccer. The Blugolds played their first game in program history on Sept. 1 — earning the program's first win with a 4-3, come-from-behind win over Hamline. UWEC's first goal was actually an own goal, while Nathan Donovan netted the Blugolds' first goal in the 46th minute against Hamline on Sept. 1. Spencer Banks and Mark Belknap combined to make one save in UW-Eau Claire's 4-0 win over Ripon Wednesday en route to the program's first shutout.
• HOME SWEET HOME: UW-Eau Claire's Sept. 14 game against Northland was the program's first-ever home game. UW-EC beat the Lumberjacks 6-1 and are currently 2-0-0 on their home turf, while going 4-2-0 away from home.
• NAILBITERS: Five of UW-Eau Claire's eight games have been decided by one goal. UW-EC is 3-2-0 in those five contests — beating Hamline (4-3), Concordia (2-1), and Nebraska Wesleyan (3-2), while falling to both Loras and Carroll by 2-1 counts.
• BIG OFFENSE = WINS: The Blugolds have scored 22 goals in their six wins, including a season-high six goals in blanking Northland 6-1 on Sept. 14.
• OFFENSIVE LEADER: Donovan enters Saturday's showdown with Saint Mary's leading the Blugolds with 11 goals through eight games — including back-to-back two-goal games in UW-EC's last two contests. … Donovan has netted two goals in a game four times, and has had at least one goal in seven of the team's eight games.
• OFFENSIVE LEADERS, PART II: Will Heinen and Evan Wilson have each chipped in three goals, while Matt Folden and Carter Thiesfeld have scored twice and A.J. Johnson owns the Blugolds other goal. … Wilson is the team's assist leader with six, and Donovan boasts a team-high 22 points.
• BETWEEN THE PIPES: The Blugolds have used three different goalkeepers through eight games. Spencer Banks has compiled a 1.12 goals-against-average and a .684 save percentage in 480:53. Mark Belknap (1.26 GAA, .333 save %, 142:33) and Jakob Leonard (2.98 GAA, .333 save %, 121:59) have also seen time between the pipes this season. … Banks has made a team-high 13 saves.
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