CANTON -- While one 2010 St. Lawrence University soccer national All America player watched from the sidelines, another keyed the Saints to a 3-2 win over Oneonta in game one of the Lotto Tournament at SLU's MacAllaster Field Saturday afternoon.

The Saints were without first-team All America Brendan Gorman, who is likely out for the season after a summer soccer injury, but junior Sam DeMello, a second team All America as a sophomore, scored one goal and assisted on another as the Saints built a 3-1 lead and then held off the Red Dragons for their first win of the season.

The two teams traded early goals as Oneonta, now 1-1, broke the scoring ice when Alex Shkreli took a through pass from Nicholas Lange and went one-on-one with Saint goalie Nate Goss-Woliner at the 20:18 mark for the game's first goal, but the Saints had an almost immediate response as junior Brian Gilloran crossed the ball at the top of the box to senior captain Dan Marvin and Marvin fired a hard shot back across the goal mouth, hitting inside the far post at 22:56.

DeMello, who is among several Saints battling injury early in the 2011 season, then set up the go-ahead goal at 57:29 as he evaded a defender and sent a lead pass into the box where Gilloran controlled the ball and went one-on-one with goalie Max Siegelman, scoring from point blank range. DeMello then took a throw-in from Mike Manfredi to give the Saints a 3-1 lead just over six minutes later as his hard shot could not be controlled by the keeper and deflected into the net off his hands on a diving attempt at a save at 63:39.

Oneonta got one back when Eric Fortier crossed the ball to the far post for a header goal by Raymond Fitzpatrick at 69:19, but the Saints were able to hold on for the win with the help of a big defensive play by junior back Will Congdon, who took the ball just short of the goal line and cleared it with 6:55 to play to protect the one-goal lead.

"Sam hasn't even been back a full week, but he is so talented that even at 70 percent he is one of the best there is. He gave us tremendous leadership and communication on the field in addition to playing such a big part in the scoring. We had a lot of young guys in there and he made sure to keep them in the right places," said Saint coach Bob Durocher.

"We were able to play a little deeper into our bench, which we really needed because of the heat and humidity, and I thought the guys off the bench picked us up in the first half. I was a little disappointed when we were up 3-1 that we let them back into it, but it was a pretty good first-game effort."

The Saints held a 18-17 edge in overall shots with Goss-Wolliner making six saves for the win while Siegelman finished with seven saves for the Dragons. SLU had a 5-4 edge in corner kicks.

The Saints will play Eastern Connecticut, a 3-0 winner over Clarkson in Sunday's game three at noon of tournament while Oneonta takes on the Golden Knights at 2 p.m.

Game 2: Eastern Connecticut 3, Clarkson 0

Corey Tobler scored two goals and Carl Appel made six saves for the shutout as Eastern Connecticut beat Clarkson 3-0 in the season opener for both teams at MacAllaster Field Saturday afternoon.

Tobler put the ball between Clarkson goalie Saverino Spagnolo and the post just 5:30 into the game to open the scoring and scored his second on a breakaway at the 60:19 mark. Matt Esposito put away a rebound of a shot by Mitch Power at 70:20 to complete the scoring. Spagnolo had four saves for Clarkson.