HOUSTON - The Trinity men's soccer team advanced to the SCAC Championship final with a 1-0 win over the Southwestern University Pirates on Friday evening.
 
The 13-ranked Tigers (16-0-3) battled hard throughout, scoring the only goal at the end of the first half, while recording their 12th shutout of the season.
 
The Rundown
 
On a humid evening in Houston, Trinity came out of the blocks flying, creating a number of openings in the final third, with one resulting in an Adam Knutson (Dripping Springs, Texas / Dripping Springs) header that forced a great save from the opposing goalkeeper. The teams went back and forth the rest of the half, with the only chance for the Pirates coming from a header that struck the crossbar. With 3 minutes left of the first half Knutson broke away from the Pirates midfield and put on one of his classic dribbling classes, bearing down on the opposition defense he shimmied the ball onto his right foot and struck the ball at the goal producing a brilliant save from the keeper, only for the ball to fall kindly at the feet of the onrushing Samuel Theiss (Boerne, Texas / Boerne) who calmly slotted it past the keeper with too much pace even for the outstretched leg of the opposition defender to keep out. This took Theiss onto 5 goals in his debut season with the Tigers.
 
The second half was much like the first, with the Tigers controlling possession and the only threat for the pirates coming from one of their dangerous set-pieces. It was a scrappy affair, with Trinity's defense, marshaled by their graduate captain JonConnor Rule (San Antonio, Texas / Johnson), showing their grit and determination to limit the Pirates to zero shots on target for the game and giving Omkar Satpathy (Pleasanton, Calif. / Amador Valley) his 9th shutout of the season. Having come off of an 11-goal weekend last week, this victory was crucial for the Tigers as it demonstrated they can grind out a win, with poor pitch conditions, away from home under the lights. As the clock struck zero, the Tiger family celebrated as they had clinched a spot in the final.
 
Up Next
 
The Tigers have secured their advance to the SCAC Championship final on Sunday at 2pm, where they will match up against the University of St. Thomas Celts in the hope of securing their first SCAC championship title since 2018.