Fifth-year goalkeeper Ben Woelfinger stool tall in the woodwork making six saves to earn his 18th career clean sheet as the St. Lawrence University men's soccer team battled to a 0-0 tie with SUNY Geneseo on Friday afternoon at Sandy MacAllaster Field.

The veteran keeper is now two shutouts away from Sandy MacAllaster '78, who is fifth in program history with 20 clean sheets.

Both teams moved to 0-0-1 on the year with the tie.  

"It was a very hard-earned draw today against a very well-coached and organized team," said head coach Mike Toshack "I'm proud of the effort that our group put in to earn a clean sheet today. I was also proud to see some young players make their college debuts and play well in the match. It's now a quick turnaround to play number ten in the country SUNY Cortland on Sunday, which is a good test, and we look forward to playing them."

Despite the score, chances were plentiful in the opening half of the contest with each team generating eight shots and three on goal.

Woelfinger made all three of his saves in the first 21 minutes of the frame to stymie the Knights' attack. The Saints turned those chances around in the next nine minutes as first-year Henry Brown, Michael McDougald, and Max Mogul all had good looks but were turned aside by Vincent Maronski. Mogul also had a chance in the box in the half but was taken down in the box to keep the game knotted.



Geneseo once again got a pair of chances early in the half as Joe Vogt and Stefen Nikolic were able to get a pair of shots on frame that Woelfinger calmly handled. A Saints counter punch again resulted in a Mogul effort, which was also stopped.

In the 64th-minute, Eren Aydin was afforded a golden opportunity to get his team on the scoreboard as a perfect pass led him behind the St. Lawrence back line. Aydin put a left-footed strike on the net, but Woelfinger made the play of the game turning the shot away to keep the score at 0-0.

The Scarlet and Brown continued to push and got their last shot on net from McDougald in the 84th, but they couldn't break the tie.

Woelfinger's six saves earned him his 18th career clean sheet, while Maronski stopped five in his to earn his own shutout.

Geneseo finished with a 15-10 edge in shots and 6-5 advantage in shots on goal.

The Saints will have a day off before welcoming the No. 10 SUNY Cortland Red Dragons to Sandy MacAllaster Field for a 1:00 p.m. match on Sunday, September 3.