Box Score On a day when neither team could generate scoring opportunities in their offensive end of the pitch, Trinity University took advantage of a penalty kick to slip past Colorado College, 1-0, in the title game of the 2015 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Men's Soccer Championship on Sunday at Stewart Field.

Senior defender Tom Carwile sent a low shot into the left side of the net under the arm of CC goalkeeper Theo Hooker, who guessed correctly and dove toward the left post.

Carwile, who notched his seventh game winner of the season, improved to 4-for-5 on penalties this season.

TU improved to 19-2-0 and clichéd an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.

"That to me was a Final 16 NCAA Tournament game," Trinity head coach Paul McGinlay said. "That's what they look like. Sometimes they're not pretty, but it's just trying to advance to the next round. They're (CC) a quality team and for us to play them three times and come out with two wins in fantastic."

Junior midfielder Todd Edwards nearly put TU on the board in the sixth minute when a Colorado College defender slipped just outside of the box. As Hooker came off his line to challenge the shot from the left side, the ball went just outside the far post.

After struggling to get its offense in gear, Colorado College appeared to have a scoring opportunity in the making when senior midfielder Max Grossenbacher started a chase down a long ball sent over the Trinity defense, but Daylon Gordon willingly took a yellow card for grabbing Grossenbacher as CC's leading scorer ran past the junior defender.

A little more than two minutes later, TU goalkeeper Chad Margotta mishandled a shot by Colorado College freshman forward Robert Malone, but was able to gather the rebound an instant before junior midfielder Christian Wulff could get to the loose ball.

CC possessed the ball for most of the final 55 minutes, but was unable to break through the veteran Trinity defense.

"We're disappointed," Colorado College head coach Scott Palguta said. "We can't mask that. This was as good as chance as ever to win the tournament. We picked a bad day to have a bad day.

"It wasn't a pretty game for either side. There were not many chances at goal. We needed to be cleaner on the ball in the attacking half of the field and for a while we couldn't connect a pass. We didn't create very much and never really tested their keeper."
 
CC compiled a 12-5 advantage in total shots and a 4-2 edge in corner kicks.

Hooker saved the only shot on target produced by the Trinity offense.

Margotta finished with four saves.

"The one thing you are guaranteed when Trinity plays Colorado College is a fierce, competitive battle from 0 to 90, and likely there will be one goal," McGinlay said. "That's been the history for so many years under Horst (Richardson) and I'm sure it's going to be the same under Scott."

CC now is 14-3-3 and hopes to receive an at-large selection to the national playoffs when the bracket is announced on Monday.

"It kind of had the feel of an NCAA Tournament game," Palguta said. "It was pretty tense and nobody was willing to take too many chances."