Senior captain Jethro Dede scored his fifth goal of the season in the 65th minute of play to bring the game within one, but the Rensselaer Engineers held on for a 3-2 win over the St. Lawrence University men's soccer team on Wednesday night in Troy, New York.

Dede led the Saints with a goal and an assist, while Sam Sapnar recorded one goal and Tapshak Augustine added an assist. Dede also led the Saints with two shots on goal.

Sapnar put the Saints on the board first with a header goal just three minutes and 30 seconds into play. Dede assisted on the play with the corner kick.

In the eighth minute of play, the Engineers evened the score as Austin Betterly fed a pass to Danny Corridan. Just about seven minutes later, Rensselaer took a 2-1 lead with a header goal of their own from Joe Di Miceli.

Billy Chissoe extended the Engineers lead to 3-1 with an unassisted play in the 22nd minute for his fourth goal of the season.

At the break, Rensselaer held a 10-3 shot advantage including a 3-1 edge in shots on goal.

In the 65th minute, Dede netted his fifth of the season, off a great set up and tic-tac-toe pass from Augustine to bring the Saints within one.

The tables flipped in the second half, as the Saints controlled an 8-2 shot advantage, including 6-2 in shots on goal.

Charlton Kelly put a quick shot on net with 57 seconds left in regulation, but the clock wound down sealing the win for Rensselaer.

"Again another Liberty League battle and a tale of two halves," said head coach Mike Toshack. "But the game is 90 minutes long and we need to be better at the start. The response from the team at halftime and in the second half was excellent as we sustained pressure on RPI's end of the field getting the second goal. We just weren't able to get a third one before the end. Overall, we were really pleased with the second half effort and the teams fight and we look forward to turning our focus on RIT on Saturday." 

Corridan, Chissoe and Di Miceli all recorded one goal for the Engineers, while Betterly and Michael Harten each tallied an assist.

Saints' goalkeeper Mike Smith finished with four saves, while Matt LaBranche made three saves for the Engineers.

With the loss, the Saints fell to 5-2-2 on the season and 2-1-1 in league play, while Rensselaer improved to 4-6-1 and 2-1.

St. Lawrence will travel to RIT on Saturday, October 6 for its second conference matchup of the week. Kick off against the Tigers is set for 2 p.m.