Veterans Brian Gilloran and Sam DeMello staked St. Lawrence University's men's soccer team to a 2-0 lead in the first 20 minutes and the Saints, ranked number one nationally for the second straight week, rolled to a 5-0 win over Bard College in a Liberty League game at Bard on Friday.

The Saints won their ninth straight to start the season and registered their fifth straight shutout to improve to 2-0-0 in Liberty League play heading into a Saturday game at Vassar. Rookie Jamal Samaroo and sophomore Craig Davis scored the other Saint goals with Davis scoring his first two collegiate goals in the game.

"We moved the ball well once we got going," said Saint coach Bob Durocher. "Again it was great to be able to use everybody and as the guys came off the bench and into the game they were playing our game and moving the ball very well. I was very happy for Craig...he almost had three goals...and he made the most of his opportunities. When that happens your confidence soars.

Gilloran opened the scoring with his fifth of the season, tapping the ball home off a nifty cross from Brenton Jones with Andrew Bednarsky also assisting with the game 13:30 old. Just over six minutes later, DeMello scored his eighth of the year, putting a direct free kick into the net from 20 yards out to make it 2-0.

Samaroo scored his second of the season 7:16 into the second half from Jones as he corralled a loose ball in the corner and put it away and Davis made it 4-0 with his first career goal at 78:24 as Jeremiah Bunton headed a cross to Davis for the finish from eight yards out with Mike Manfredi also assisting. Davis then scored his second 1:15 later as he put away a rebound off the initial save by Bard goalkeeper Deven Connelly.

The Saints outshot Bard 29-2 and starting goalie Brian Abernethy did not need to make a save in 63 minutes of game time. Nate Goss-Woliner played the last 26:11 and made one save for the shared shutout. Connelly had nine saves for Bard and the Saints had 10 corner kicks to none for the Raptors.

The only negative for the Saints was the on-going and growing injury list. "We lost Sean Scott early to the game with a knee-to-knee hit and Nick Lincoln went out when he took an inadvertent elbow to the nose," said Durocher. "Hopefully they'll be back for tomorrow...we have a tough one at Vassar, which is never an easy place for us to play. The last two times we have played there, both have been overtime games, so it will be another big test for us this time as well."