Tough season for men's soccer

By Katie Krull
Feature Editor 

Freshman Nate Vandergrift Battles Bethel.
Photo by SMU Athletics

The Saint Mary’s University men’s soccer team ended their season on Nov. 2 with a loss against Macalester, which left their conference record as 1-9-0.

Their overall season record was 4-13-1, but numbers do not always convey the whole truth. Four conference matches were decided by a one goal differentiation within the final minutes of the game.

Head coach Pete Watkins sums up this season as being “on the wrong end of a lot of one-goal games, whereas last year, we were on the right end of a lot of one-goal games.” 

Although the Cardinals did not achieve quite the winning record they had hoped for, they had the silver lining of developing together as a team with strong new leadership.

From a player’s standpoint, the Cardinals are going to use this season as motivation to power through their spring training and come back next season with the will and determination to see the last minute goals be made by their own players.

As for the coaches, they believe implementing new recruits of “consistent goal scorers” would be the next step to developing this team.

The Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) recognized two players from the team. Sophomore Fernando Camcho and senior Zach Palma were awarded “All MIAC Honorable-Mention.”

Both players started all 18 games of the season, and Palma finished his fourth year of collegiate soccer having played in 61 games, scoring three goals and having seven assists.