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The Saints men's soccer team advances to the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) Championship game after shutting out the Crown College Storm 3-0 at Saints Field on Tuesday.

The victory over the Storm (9-10-0) gets the Saints one step closer to returning to the national tournament for the second straight season.

The Saints controlled this one for much of the first half and it paid off in the 17th minute when Rob Johnson (Duluth, Minn./Duluth East HS) found the net on a poke pass from Kyle Farrar (Sevenoaks, England/Kelsey Park Sports College) to give CSS a 1-0 lead.  Joe Watt (London, England/North West Kent College) also received credit for an assist on the play.

The score would remain 1-0 at halftime as Crown was held without a shot on goal in the first half.

The Saints came out in the second half much the way they did in the first half and extended their lead in the 57th minute when Ace Amin (Vasteras, Sweden/Rudbeckianska Gym) scored on assists from Farrar and Brandon Stemwedel (Grand Rapids, Minn./Grand Rapids HS).

Just five minutes later Johnson would find the net again on an Amin assist to give the Saints a big 3-0 cushion with just over 27 minutes left. 

The Storm would put some pressure on late but just couldn't get anything put together and CSS held them in check and went on to victory 3-0.

Sam Reed (Eastbourne, England/Causeway School) needed only two saves to earn yet another shutout on the season, giving him 10 now on the season on his way to a 15-3-1 record.

Farrar's assists raise his team leading point total to 39, and Watt and Stemwedel's assists keep them in second and third with 31 and 25 points respectively.  Johnson's two goals move him into sixth on the team now with 14 points.

The Saints (16-3-1) will be back in action on Saturday at Saints Field when they host the number 2 seed Minnesota-Morris Cougars (12-4-2) in the UMAC Championship at 2 p.m.  The game can be seen live on GameCentral at csssaints.com.