San Antonio - Trinity's men's soccer team earned a 2-0 win over Southwestern University to win the 2012 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship on Sunday afternoon.

The Tigers improved their season record to 18-0-3 with the win, which was the second victory in three tries against Southwestern (13-8-2) in 2012.  Trinity also beat Southwestern 2-0 in the first meeting this season, though the Pirates earned a 2-2 tie against the Tigers in the previous matchup.

Despite a 14-1 first-half edge in shots taken, Trinity could not find the back of the net against Southwestern.  The Pirates came into the game with back-to-back shutouts in the SCAC Tournament, defeating Centenary College, and playing to a scoreless tie against Colorado College (Southwestern advanced 4-1 on penalty kicks).

Early in the second half, the Tigers finally hit paydirt with a nice combination just inside the 18-yard box.  Yuri Ribeiro dropped a pass into Victor Araujo, who immediately passed it to Jonny Lawson on the right side of the goal.  Lawson then beat Southwestern goalkeeper Daniel Poole to put Trinity up 1-0 in the 56th minute.

Just over 15 minutes later, Trinity struck again on a corner kick.  Murray Fraser bent the corner in from the right side, and Simon Uribe soared above the defenders to score on the header to make it 2-0 Tigers.

Trinity goalkeeper Matt Cardone made one save to earn his 10th shutout of the season, while a Tiger defender also deflected a Southwestern shot to keep the visitors scoreless.

Lawson was named the SCAC Men's Soccer Tournament Offensive MVP after scoring the game-winning goal today against Southwestern, as well as assisting on the double-overtime game-winner in Saturday's victory over Austin College.  Michael Micheletti was named the Defensive MVP of the Tournament, leading the Tiger defense to a pair of shutouts on their way to the tournament title.

The SCAC Championship is the 10th in the last 11 seasons for the Trinity Tigers, who were eliminated in the Semifinals of last year's SCAC Tournament.  Trinity also receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Playoffs with the conference title, with brackets and matchups to be released by the NCAA on Monday.