Irondequoit, NY - Steve Watson set up the tying goal, then scored the clincher as St. Lawrence University defeated the University of Rochester, 3-1, in the second round of the NCAA Division III playoffs at West Irondequoit High School.

St. Lawrence struck for its all three goals in a 17-minute span of the second half. Watson drove a 50-yard pass upfield to Jason Koshi. He sidestepped a defender and lined the ball into the net from just outside the penalty area at 66:18.

Ten minutes later, the Saints took the lead for good. Nick Mangee's corner kick was headed into the left side of the net by Sean Charles at 76:50. Watson clinched the win when he volleyed home a corner from the near post at 83:21.

Rochester took a 1-0 lead just 2:26 into the match. Nick Mikolenko's corner kick found Jeremy Mann at the back post and Mann steered it inside the left upright.

Being down 1-0 that early didn't faze the Saints. “That's happened to us a lot this season,” said SLU coach Bob Durocher. “Right after the goal, I looked and our boys didn't have their heads down. That's a good sign.”

The Yellowjackets had a chance to extend the lead, but Nate Micklos' header off a corner kick was called back for a foul and several other chances in the box didn't develop.

“We had some other opportunities in the first half and we were a second too slow to pull the trigger,” said head coach Chris Apple. “We're up 2-0 or 3-0 at halftime and it's a different game.”

At halftime, Durocher talked about holding on to the ball and quickening the attack. “Rochester is so dangerous in attack that we need to possess the ball,” he said. “I didn't think we were switching (sides of) our attack quickly enough in the first half. Rochester was doubling us. If we could get the ball into the middle, we could go forward quicker.”

SLU applied a tremendous amount of pressure early in the second half. Just three minutes in, Elliot Savitz was wide open in the box after a corner kick and Rochester's Steve Maltzman took the ball off his foot.

Six minutes later, Paul LaMarca made a long pass upfield to Koshi. He got a step on Maltzman, then shot the ball past Rochester goalkeeper Paco Corbalan into the open net from 20 yards away. The goal was disallowed for a foul committed against Maltzman.

Two minutes later, Corbalan produced what might be his best save of the season. Ian Fairlie got open just to the left of the penalty arc and ticketed the ball for the top right hand corner. Corbalan dove across the penalty spot to punch it wide for a corner kick.

The Saints won their fifth straight game and improved to 11-7-2 overall. SLU advances to the Sweet 16 of the Division III tournament on November 19-20 at a site to be announced.

Rochester, which set a single-season record for victories, finished 16-1.