Senior midfielder Raphael Zoccolaro scored his second goal of the season to send the fifth-seeded St. Lawrence University men's soccer team to a 2-0 semifinal win over top-seeded RPI on Saturday afternoon at EVAC Stadium in Troy, N.Y.

With the win, the Saints improved to 11-6-1 and earned a spot in the Liberty League title game tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. against the winner of second semifinal between Skidmore and Ithaca. RPI fell to 11-5-2 on the year with the loss.  

The Saints return for the title game for the first time since 2018 when the Scarlet and Brown beat Ithaca College at Sandy MacAllaster Field in penalty kicks to win the Liberty League Championship.

"That was a tremendous win today against a very well-coached, battle hardened, veteran team" said head coach Mike Toshack "We bent at times, but the team refused to break! Both of our goals were beautifully taken attempts. We now focus on our recovery for tomorrow's Championship match."

The first half got off to a slow start as both teams went through an initial feeling-out process. RPI would eventually get going offensively to the tune of nine shots attempted to the Saints' one in the first half.

Despite being outshot 4-1 in the first half, the Scarlet and Brown had the most dangerous effort of the half off a great play from the Saints' backend. With just under eight minutes left in the first half, Andrew Terhune ripped a long ball into Marvin Sibanda in the offensive end. Sibanda took control of the ball and ran in on a two-on-one with Kyle Graber. The goalkeeper charged the junior forward forcing a pass into Graber. However, the RPI defender made a great play to head the effort away and keep the score at 0-0.

The Scarlet and Brown broke through with the first goal of the contest with 39 minutes to go in the second half. Much like the near goal in the first half, the play was started by Terhune, who launched a pass forward to the midfield. Robert Reynolds caught the pass and fired a through-ball up to Raphael Zoccolaro, who outraced the Engineers' defense and beat the charging Luke Brezak to put the Saints up 1-0.

RPI nearly found an equalizer with 31:34 left in regulation as their most dangerous player was left alone in front of the net. The ball found its way to Josh Gaudiano, who was all alone with an open look at the net. The forward put too much juice on the ball and sailed it high and wide to keep the game at 1-0.

Ben Woelfinger made one of his best saves of the season with just under 15 minutes to go in regulation. Joe Di Miceli was on the receiving end of a beautiful cross and the forward got a great header on the goal. Woelfinger had to make a spectacular diving save to keep the ball out and keep the one-goal lead intact.  

Woelfinger continued to stand tall as he stopped three point-blank shots with just under eight minutes to go in the game. Trevor Bisson, Paul Silva, and Julio Rodriguez all had grade-A chances, but were turned away by Woelfinger and the Saints' defense to remain scoreless.

Robert Reynolds received a pass with just under a minute to go in the game from Terhune and chipped the ball over the goalkeeper to put on the finishing touches in the 2-0 win.

Woelfinger faced 23 shots and stopped all six that came his way to register his fifth clean sheet of the season. Brezak stopped two of the four shots that found the Engineers' goal.

The Scarlet and Brown will be back at EVAC Stadium tomorrow with the Liberty League Championship on the line. The game will start at 1:30 p.m. and the Saints will face the winner of the Skidmore and Ithaca game later today.