St. Paul, Minn. -- Scotland has lost it's vote for independence and the Macalester Scots have lost their bid to end Blazer soccer's reign over the MIAC. The Saint Benedict soccer team (9-1, 4-0 MIAC) scored a huge win today to grab sole possession of first-place in the MIAC standings. They defeated the Macalester Scots (4-5-1, 1-2-1) by a 1-0 margin, scoring the winning goal with just 14 seconds left in double overtime. The game was a rematch of last year's MIAC Championship game, which the Blazers won 3-2. With the win the Blazers extend their winning streak to nine game, the highest win streak they have had in the Steve Kimble era.

Defenses dominated most of the game. The Blazer defensive line held the Scots without a shot on goal for the first 70 minutes of the match, and only allowed four total in the game. Sophomore keeper Heather Kaluzniak aptly blocked all four attempts to score, lowering her conference-leading goals against average to 0.16 and her conference-leading save percentage to 0.968. The Blazer defense hasn't allowed a goal in the past 458 minutes of game time (7 hours 38 minutes) and are on a string of four-straight shutouts.

Despite eight corner kicks in regulation, the Blazers were unable to put one past Macalester keeper Emma Toomer. After 90 minutes of regulation and 10 minutes of overtime, the two MIAC powerhouses were tied at 0-0 and it looked likely the game would end in draw.

In the final overtime period however, the Blazer offense took the game into its own hands. They quickly gained possession and set up a corner kick just 45 seconds into the period. Nine minutes later with under 20 seconds on the clock, junior midfielder Peggy Renier found the pass the Blazer offense had been looking for all night. She fed the ball to sophomore forward Taylor Hedin, who took the pass outside and promptly rifled it past Toomer to end the gridlock and give the Blazers their ninth straight victory.

That goal was Hedin's third conference goal through four conference games, tying her for third-most goals scored in MIAC games this year.

With that win and a Concordia-Carleton tie, Saint Benedict now moves into first-place atop the MIAC standings with 12 points. Carleton and Concordia trail with 10 points apiece.

The Blazers will return to action this Saturday when they will travel to Northfield to face the Knights of Carleton College. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m.