FAIRMONT — The Saints utilized quick passing and limited touches to keep the ball away from the Cardinals.

St. Peter beat Fairmont Area 2-1 in a Big South Conference matchup Thursday night at Kot Soccer Complex in Fairmont.

St. Peter’s deciding goal came late in the first half.

With just more than six minutes remaining in the opening segment, the Saints’ Yahye Mohamed threaded a pass through the middle of the Cardinal defense to Seth Reicks, who was able to barely stay onside before passing through the back line of Fairmont Area defenders to receive the ball. Reicks then had a one-on-one with Cardinal goalie Tyson Geerdes and won with a hard ground shot to the bottom left corner of the net.

Fairmont Area head coach Brady Meyer said mistakes during the Cardinals’ time of possession cost the team.

“We just weren’t as quick as we needed to be with the ball and we made some poor plays with our possession and it cost us,” said Meyer. ” … I was really impressed with their push at the end, it was a good, close game for us.”

St. Peter got the scoring started when Daniel Nadeau collected a deflected ball near the top of the goalie box and drove it into the bottom left corner of the webbing past a diving Geerdes.

Fairmont Area hit an equalizer on one of its seven corner-kick opportunities of the first half.

Daniel Brummond took the kick, but instead of launching the ball into the goalie box, he hit a ground pass to defender Ryan Hennager waiting on the left wing. Hennager took the shot from outside the goalie box and rolled the ball into the bottom right corner of the twine past St. Peter goalkeeper Ridwan Jeh.

Jeh ended with four saves to net the win, while Geerdes also stopped four shots.

Fairmont Area had opportunities to equalize again in the final 25 minutes with three shots on goal to the Saints’ one, but the Cardinals couldn’t find paydirt.

St. Peter also beat the Cardinals 4-1 in the season-opener, making Thursday the first time Meyer got to watch his team against a team it had already played.

“We’ve really started to dial it in more on our gameplay, moving the ball up and shorter passes through the mid,” Meyer said. “That really showed today that we have really improved in that aspect of the game.”

Fairmont Area (3-4-1) travels to Albert Lea for a 5 p.m. matchup Saturday, while St. Peter (5-1-1) plays at Southwest Minnesota Christian at 1 p.m. in Edgerton.

Fairmont Area and St. Peter tied at 2 during junior varsity action Thursday night in Fairmont.

Isaiah Lebbi scored both goals for the Cardinals, one 37 seconds into the game and the other at the 17:45 juncture of the first half.

Bryant Armitage made two saves for the Cardinals.

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Girls Soccer

St. Peter 2, Fairmont Area 1 — Junior forward Emma Jones tallied both of the Big South clash of titans’ second-half goals to squeeze by the Cardinals on Thursday night in St. Peter.

St. Peter halted Fairmont Area’s seven-game winning streak with the one-goal win. Ironically, the Saints nipped the Cardinals, 1-0, in the season-opener.

Senior striker Joni Becker continued her torrid scoring streak by staking Fairmont Area to a 1-0 halftime margin. Becker converted an assist from Emma Schultze into a goal at the 29:30 juncture.

Jones then connected on a penalty kick for the equalizer with 26:02 remaining in the second half. Jones netted the eventual game-winning goal off a pass from Adrianna Bixby with 9:08 left in regulation.

St. Peter netminder Katie Gurrola stopped 15 of 16 Fairmont Area shots on goal to net the win. Cardinals’ keeper Cadence Becker turned away 15 of 16 Saints’ shots.

Fairmont Area (7-2, 5-2 BSC) travels to Mankato East on Saturday for a 2 p.m. non-league game.

St. Peter (6-0-2, 6-0-1) hits the road to New Ulm on Monday.