St. Lawrence University Athletics

Sophomore goalkeeper Zach Amato made six saves in the woodwork to extend his shutout streak to 315 minutes as the St. Lawrence University men's soccer team battled to a 0-0 draw with SUNY Oneonta on Saturday afternoon on Sandy MacAllaster Field.

The Saints and Red Dragons both saw their records move to 3-0-1 with the draw.

"It was an excellent performance by the team today against a top-notch opponent in Oneonta, coached by one of the top coaches in the country, Iain Byrne," said head coach Mike Toshack. "We're disappointed we didn't win the game; guys created enough really quality chances to score and win. That's the next step to take, but most encouraging is the hard work and defensive honesty, and everyone in the team to work hard to keep clean sheets and to keep things locked down, which is really encouraging and we can take going forward. We learned today a lot of things about some players that came off the bench for us and did superb work and really gave performances for the team, which is also very encouraging. So, we just look to recover and regroup before we go play Wednesday away from home at Cortland, one of the top teams in the country. A good week for us to keep going forward, and learning, and getting better as a group." 

St. Lawrence got the better of the chances early in the match as Grant Gilmer and Kenneth Mejia Lopex both got shots on frame. James Cintron was in strong form early, turning away both chances.

Amato was just as strong in the home net as Milton Magana, Zach Rabadi, Nico Loaiza, and Imari Harris all got turned away in the opening 30 minutes of action.

The best chance of the first half came in the 32^nd minute when Baker Diaz shuffled a pass to Nicholas Petrone, who was streaking up the middle. The midfielder's strike sailed just to the right of the net to keep the game at 0-0 going into the break.



Petrone began the second half where he left off, getting another look at the Red Dragon net, but he was once again turned away.

Following Petrone's chance, Amato made two saves in the following three minutes to keep Oneonta at bay. The shots were the last the Red Dragons would see of the Saints' net as Gustav Scheibler, Kyle Reddish, and the St. Lawrence back line locked things down in front of their net.

St. Lawrence, on the other hand, was applying heavy pressure and got off nine shot attempts in eight minutes. However, just one chance found the frame as Eric Edmonds was turned away by Cintron.

As play wound down, chances became scarce, and the final chance came in the 90^th minute as Patrick Hower leaned into a strike. His right-footed shot sailed over the frame, and the clock hit zero on the draw.

Amato finished with six saves in the result and earned his third clean sheet of the season, while Cintron came up with five in the visiting goal.

St. Lawrence had an 18-11 edge in shot attempts, while Oneonta led 6-5 in shots on goal. The Saints also led in corner kicks at 5-3.

The Scarlet and Brown will head to the road next week on Wednesday, September 16, as the team heads to SUNY Cortland to take on the Red Dragons in a 7 p.m. tilt.