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HAMILTON – The Colgate men's soccer team closed out the pre-league portion of its season with a convincing 2-0 win over Saint Francis (Pa.) in the CU Inaria Classic finale Sunday afternoon at Beyer-Small '76 Field.
 
Colgate scored in the third and 55th minutes thanks to goals from sophomore Uyi Omorogbe and senior Colin O'Neill. The Raiders recorded their fifth shutout of the season with the help of five saves from junior keeper Peter Tappenden.
 
The Raiders got on the board right away when junior Jared Stroud took the ball away from an SFU defender at the top of the 18-yard box and sent a through pass to Omorogbe who tapped it past the charging Red Flash keeper and into the back of the net to give Colgate a 1-0 lead in the third minute.
 
Oliver Harris nearly doubled Colgate's lead in the 18th minute when he fired a point-blank shot right at SFU keeper Marcus Rojas who was able to deflect it just over the crossbar to keep the Raider lead at 1-0. Colgate continued to pressure the Red Flash defense and limited Saint Francis to just two shots for the rest of the half as the Raiders carried their 1-0 lead into halftime.
 
Colgate's second goal came early on in the second half as Omorogbe passed the ball to O'Neill on the left edge of the 18-yard box. O'Neill bent a beauty over the head of the SFU keeper and into the netting of the far post to extend the Raider advantage to 2-0 in the 55th minute.
 
The Red Flash had a few chances to get on the board in the latter parts of the second half, but Tappenden came up with three saves down the stretch to keep his clean sheet in tact and guide the Raiders to the 2-0 victory.
 
BOTTOM LINE

• Colgate 2, Saint Francis 0

 
WON-LOST RECORDS

• The Raiders move to 5-2-0 on the season with the victory.
• Saint Francis falls to 5-3-0 with the loss.

 
KEY RAIDER INFO

• Omorogbe scored the first goal of his career and finished the game with three points after assisting Colgate's second goal.
• O'Neill's goal was his first of the season and second of his career.
• The shutout is the first of Tappenden's career and the five saves are a career-best.
• Colgate has now shut out its opponents in five of seven games this season.

 
FACTS & FIGURES

• The Raiders wrapped up the game with a 13-12 shot advantage and 6-1 corner kick edge.
• The Red Flash recorded five shots on goal compared to Colgate's four.
• SFU's Rojas finished with two saves in goal.

 
FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach Erik Ronning

• "We made some critical errors against a good team Friday and paid for our mistakes. We responded really well today and were confident in doing what we do well. A lot of people responded, which was necessary because we have a deep team. A lot of guys gave some really quality minutes."
• "It was a great team win. We scored two really good goals and, for the most part, locked it down defensively. Peter (Tappenden) played tremendous in goal. We're fortunate to have a number of great goalkeepers in this program that can give us an opportunity to be successful."
• "Saint Francis is a very good team. As a coach, you hope to play teams in the non-conference schedule that really challenge you, and this team did that today. It was a little edgy and chippy at times, but we kept our composure and played well."
• "We'll start preparing for preseason favorite American on Tuesday. They have great players and they're a really good team. We'll focus our efforts on recovering and getting back to it in preparations for the start of Patriot League play."

 
UP NEXT

• The Raiders open up Patriot League play next Saturday Sept. 24 at American.
• Kickoff is set for 4 p.m. from Reeves Athletics Complex.