Men's Soccer 10/14/06 -- Augsburg 3, St. Mary's 1

BOXSCORE 

MINNEAPOLIS (10/14/06) -- Andrew Seidel (So., Woodbury, Minn.) scored for Augsburg College in the first half, and Josh Stepaniak (Fr., Woodbury, Minn.) and Andrew Connor (Jr., Becket, Mass./North Muskegon (Mich.) HS) added second half goals, as the Auggies claimed a 3-1 win over St. Mary's University in a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference men's soccer contest Saturday night at Augsburg's Edor Nelson Field.

With the win, Augsburg (12-1-2 overall, 4-1-2 MIAC) remains in the hunt for a first-ever spot in the four-team MIAC postseason playoffs, with three conference games remaining in the regular season. The Auggies are now in fourth place with 10 conference points, just one point out of Hamline's third-place position (10-2-1 overall, 5-1-1 MIAC) and two points out of the first-place tie between Gustavus (11-1-1 overall, 6-1-0 MIAC) and St. John's (10-3-1 overall, 6-1-0 MIAC). The top six teams in the MIAC standings are all within four league points of each other after Saturday's play, with each having played seven MIAC games.

With its 12th win of the season, Augsburg claimed its most victories in a men's soccer season since 1978 (12-1-5 overall). Augsburg has now reached the 12-win plateau (tied with the 1973, 1974 and 1978 squads for the second-most victories in a single season) five times in the 37-year history of the men's soccer program. Augsburg's single-season victory record is 15, set in the team's 1975 MIAC championship season (15-2-1 overall).

St. Mary's, which got a second-half goal from James Kuhnle (So., Burlington, Wis./Wilmat HS), is now 4-9-0 overall, 1-7-0 in MIAC play.

"We will take the two (conference) points and move forward, regardless of our performance in the second half," said Augsburg head coach Greg Holker.

Augsburg opened the scoring just 4:22 into the game, when Seidel scored his team-leading sixth goal of the season on a free kick. His free kick, from about 25 yards out on the left side, carried with a strong wind across the crease and into the top right corner of the goal.

Augsburg dominated the momentum in the first half, with eight shots to St. Mary's one, but were called four times for offside -- five times in the game. St. Mary's was whistled twice for offside in the game, including once in the first half when a scoring opportunity was denied the Cardinals on a potential breakaway.

Augsburg's Stepaniak collected his first collegiate goal in the 63rd minute, when his rebound shot from a James See (So., Richfield, Minn./Holy Angels HS) effort glanced off a St. Mary's defender and went into the goal.

"Josh Stepaniak has been waiting for that moment all season, and his teammates are excited for him," Holker said. "James See had a strong performance, especially in the first half. He is a big reason why teams have had some trouble scoring on us."

But 61 seconds later, St. Mary's got back into the game, as Kuhnle scored on a feed from Terrence Coonan (Fr., Fort Wayne, Ind./Bishop Dwenger HS) following the restart of play.

The SMU goal was just the third scored against Augsburg this season. Augsburg, which entered this week's play with the top defense, statistically, in the NCAA Division III national rankings, has now only been scored upon in two of its 15 games this season. Augsburg has outscored its opponents by a 33-3 margin this season, and the Auggies now have a team goals-against-average of 0.19.

St. Mary's had nine shots in the second half to Augsburg's 11, with Augsburg claiming a 19-10 shots advantage in the game.

Augsburg clinched the victory in the final minute, as Connor put in his fourth goal of the season on a solid counterattack. A drive by goalkeeper Pascaul Venter (So., Rochester, Minn./John Marshall HS) was collected by forward Kelsey Duerr (Fr., Blaine, Minn./Spring Lake Park HS), who fed a sprinting Connor on his right for the third goal of the game for the Auggies.

"Andrew Connor is now near full form, as he recorded another important goal," Holker said. "Both he and Kelsey are working extremely well together right now."

Venter made five saves in goal for Augsburg. He now has a 0.21 goals-against-average with 68 saves (.958 save percentage). Jon Szafranski (Fr., Barrington, Ill./Fremd HS) made nine saves for St. Mary's.

Mike Schmitt (Sr., Woodridge, Ill./Downers Grove North HS) had three shots for St. Mary's, with Kuhnle adding two.

Augsburg returns to MIAC play on Wednesday (10/18) at 7:30 p.m., with a home game against Bethel at Edor Nelson Field. St. Mary's is idle until next Saturday (10/21), when it has a 3 p.m. game at St. John's.