POTSDAM -- Sophomore Alex Laird used his height to advantage to score on a penalty kick 17 minutes into the second half, sending St. Lawrence University's men's soccer team to a 2-0 win over Roberts Wesleyan on day one of the annual Lotto Invitational Tournament at Clarkson on Friday.

Laird, a 6-5 defender, moved up on the corner kick play and headed Tyler McCune's kick past Roberts Wesleyan goalie Erik Read to snap a scoreless tie. Junior Sean Scott gave the Saints an insurance goal when he took a through ball from Sam DeMello and beat the goalie to the far post with 2:54 to play in regulation time.

St. Lawrence outshot Roberts Wesleyan 16-6 in the game, 9-2 in the second half, and had six corner kicks to two for the Raiders who were playing their third game of the season.

Saint goalie Brian Abernethy made three saves for the shutout including one big diving stop on a play that looked like a sure goal.

"We weren't quite as sharp as we were in last weekend's scrimmage against the University of Buffalo, but we were able to come away with the win," said Saint coach Bob Durocher. "We are still a work in progress...there were some good things out there, but we want to get more guys into the game and improve our depth a little bit. We did more moving around of players today than we did getting the newer players into a tight game.

"We scored two good goals and had some chances at others. Defensively we were fairly solid and Brian did come up with one tremendous save to protect his shutout. Hopefully we can build off this against Houghton and continue to improve as we get more game action under our belts."