LACEY, Wash. – The Saints held a lead over conference foe Simon Fraser for nearly 70 minutes, but with Saint Martin's shorthanded on the field, the Clan punched in two goals to steal a 2-1 victory.
 
The careers of seven different Saints came to a close on Saturday afternoon, including Dylan Shaw, Treyson Ramos, Collin LaBranche, Iovani Rodriguez-Perez, Will Eldred, Sebastian Navarro, and Brandon Madsen.
 
"We had a dream start against a very good Simon Fraser side," said head coach Rob Walker. "When we made it to the half leading 1-0, we wanted to improve our defending in midfield, and improve our possession in both halves. You have to credit Simon Fraser for keeping the pressure on after the intermission, but we made an adjustment or two, and that seemed to help cut down on the number of penetrating chances they had as the second half went on."
 
Saint Martin's quickly struck the first blow, scoring in the seventh minute off a diving header from Jason Fairhurst. Madsen worked the ball down in the edge of the box, and played a ball right to the front of the net. Fairhurst beat his defender and headed the ball into the near post for his fifth goal of the season.
 
Simon Fraser proceeded to fire shot-after-shot at the Saints for the rest of the first half, looking to equalize. Shaw and the Saints' defense held strong, deflecting nine shots, and holding Simon Fraser scoreless in the break.
 
Out of halftime, Simon Fraser continued to apply pressure, but were unable to crack the Saints' defense. However, the match turned in the 75th minute. LaBranche, who had picked up a yellow card earlier, was issued a second yellow and sent off. Simon Fraser took advantage of the man down Saints, and equalized the match in the 80th minute on a ball off the keeper.
 
The Saints proceeded to lose another player, this time in the form of Madsen, who was issued a red, leaving SMU playing two men down. Simon Fraser continued to apply pressure and eventually scored the game-winning goal in the 85th minute.
 
"As much as I'd like to say we rolled forward and finished the game out, the last 15 minutes or so we were knocked off our game when Senior Collin LaBranche was sent off for a second caution and Senior Brandon Madsen was ejected with about 6 minutes left," explained Walker "I've viewed both on video and believe there could have been other choices made, but one of the things we know is that we can't change nor argue with officials' decisions."
 
Despite the loss, the Saints marked off their second consecutive winning season, posting a 9-8-2 record. Brandon Madsen scored a school record of 18 goals, and 40 points on the year, and looks poised to be named the GNAC Player of the Year.
 
"I have a lot of respect for all of our seven seniors and wish we could have been a bit more decisive in the last quarter of an hour," Walker said. "I can't thank these men enough for their contribution to our program in their time here and I have high hopes for all of them succeeding in their lives well after the end of today's game."