Women's Soccer 10/15/05 -- St. Mary's 1, Augsburg 0 (2OT)

BOXSCORE

WINONA, Minn. (10/15/05) -- For the Augsburg College and St. Mary's University women's soccer teams, trying to score on goalkeepers Maggie DeGroot (Fr., Waukesha, Wis./Waukesha West HS) and Jennifer Johnson (Jr., Racine, Wis./Horlick HS) must have felt like trying to score on a brick wall.

Both DeGroot, Augsburg's freshman, and Johnson, a Cardinal junior, entered Saturday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game boasting nearly identical numbers:

-- Both had started every game their team had played.

-- Both had near-microscopic goals-against-averages -- DeGroot at 0.59 and Johnson at 0.50.

-- And both had posted their fair share of shutouts this season -- DeGroot had five in 11 games, while Johnson boasted six in 13 contests.

And both were at their best on Saturday as the two were perfect for the first 114 minutes of Saturday's game at Ochrymowycz Field.

Fortunately for the Cardinals, Amy Cory (So., Crystal Lake, Ill./Crystal Lake South HS) was able to find a chink in DeGroot's seemingly impenetrable armor, as the junior broke in free and beat DeGroot with the game's only goal as SMU escaped with a 1-0 double-overtime victory.

St. Mary's is now 11-3-0 overall, 4-3-0 in MIAC play. Augsburg saw its school-record unbeaten start to the season end at 11 games, as the Auggies drop to 7-1-4 overall, 4-1-2 in MIAC play.

"That was a great game -- and a huge win for us," said SMU coach Tony Guinn, who has finally coached the Cardinals to an overtime victory after going 0-2-2 in his first four OT games as SMU's head coach. "We didn't play exceptionally well, but everyone gutted it out. Augsburg is a very good team and they played well -- we got a great scoring chance (in the second OT) and Amy came through for us.

"That was the difference."

That, and the play of Johnson, whose seventh shut out of the season may have been her best.

The Auggies held a 9-6 advantage in shots on goal -- but also attempted 20 shots, compared to the Cardinals' nine. Augsburg also had the game's two best scoring opportunities, only to come up empty against Johnson both times.

Augsburg's Emily Anderson * (Jr., Hudson, Wis.) unleashed a point-blank shot with less than three minutes remaining in the first half, only to have Johnson make a diving save to keep the game scoreless. With 13 minutes remaining in regulation, Millie Suk * (Sr., Rochester, Minn./Mayo HS) had a free kick from just outside the 18 that Johnson leaped high to her right to make the save.

"Johnson played great -- in my opinion, she's the best keeper in the conference," praised Guinn. "She played an outstanding game and kept us in there.

"This is such a great win -- especially after what happened to us against St. Thomas," continued Guinn, referring to SMU's 1-0 double overtime loss to the Tommies a week ago. "That was such a tough loss, we didn't want to go through that again.

"We felt like St. Thomas stole two (conference) points from us in that game -- and today, we stole a point or two (from Augsburg)."

Augsburg returns to MIAC play on Tuesday (10/18) at 3:30 p.m. with a rescheduled game at St. Benedict. The originally scheduled game for Augsburg at Wisconsin-River Falls has been cancelled. St. Mary's returns to MIAC action with a home game against Hamline on Thursday (10/20) at 3:30 p.m.