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Duluth, Minn. – After taking a 1-0 lead in the first half, the University of Minnesota, Morris men's soccer team went into halftime down 2-1, and eventually fell 4-1 to St. Scholastica in the 2010 UMAC Tournament Championship.

“I think we came out and played very well at the start, we played very well the whole game,” head coach Scott Turnbull said after the match. “We kind of jumped on them a little bit, Toby [Glaser] hit a great shot, it was a perfect start for us. We struggled a little bit near the end of the first half giving up a goal on a free kick. After that they're a tough team play from behind from.”

The final score does not do the game justice as it was a tightly played close match between two evenly matched teams. The final two goals came in the final 12 minutes of the match, after a 2-1 score illustrated much of the play.

In just the 20th minute, Toby Glaser (Colorado Springs, Colo.) rifled a shot from nearly 35 yards out that was too high and too hard for Saints goalkeeper Sam Reed to catch up with. The goal was the team-leading ninth of the season for Glaser, and gave the Cougars their first lead of the season over the Saints.

The Cougars' lead would not make it out of the first half, though, but it wasn't for lack of effort.

Clinging to their 1-0 lead, a foul was called on the Cougars inside the box down on the Saints end, awarding a penalty kick to CSS. Playing in his final game, UMM goal keeper Tyler Simpson (Broomfield, Colo.) came up with one of the best saves of the season, turning away the Saint attempt.

Caught up in the celebration of the stop, the Cougars guard was down and the Saints capitalized just seconds later for the tying score.

Less than 10-minutes later a St. Scholastica corner kick led to the go ahead goal, and a lead that the Saints would not relinquish. They took the 2-1 lead into halftime and outshot the Cougars 12-to-4 in the second half to lock up the win.

“It was an uphill battle,” Turnbull said. We tried to push ahead a little at the end, and they got two late on us at the end. I think it was more us trying to push forward than them attacking.”

Simpson finished with four saves in the final match of his career, including two incredible stops on penalty kicks. The Saints were awarded a second penalty kick in the final minutes of the match, and Simpson turned that attempt away as well as the final seconds ticked off.

The Cougars wrap up the 2010 campaign with a 10-7-4 record, after finishing second in the UMAC in the regular season with a 9-4-2 mark.

Along with Simpson, Jeff Lind (Robbinsdale, Minn.) and Chris Blahna (Sartell, Minn.) each played their final career matches today, and made up a senior class that advanced to the UMAC title match every season they were on the UMM campus.

St. Scholastica will now advance to represent the UMAC in the NCAA Tournament, gaining the automatic bid for the tourney beginning next weekend.