AMHERST, Mass. -- Shawn Rapal's goal in the 54th minute Tuesday night lifted the No. 7 Amherst College men's soccer team to a 1-0 victory over Wocester Polytechnic Institute on Gooding Field. 

"WPI is such a good team," Amherst head coach Justin Serpone said. "That's the third year in a row that one goal has made the difference. Shawn did a great job on the header from what was a great ball by Ada."

The Mammoths improved to 4-0-1. They are home again Saturday at 2:30 p.m. when Bates College comes to Hitchcock Field. 

"I told the guys in the postgame huddle to not think about soccer for the next forty-eight hours," Serpone said. " We'll start focusing on Bates come Thursday but I think it's helpful to get some time to take a deep breath and get away from it. It's been a good start for us but we got a long way to go."

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS:

* The Mammoths out shot WPI 10-3 in the first half, but when the half concluded, the game was still scoreless. 

*  Amherst first-year Mohammed Nuhu had a chance 12 minutes into the game, but was stopped by the Engineers goalkeeper. In the 21st minute, a corner kick Ignacio Cubeddu sailed into the box and bounced to Declan Sung, whose shot was also saved.

* The Mammoths broke through with 33:41 remaining in the contest on some typically brilliant passing. Fynn Hayton-Ruffner collected a loose ball in the WPI third and slid a pass to Ben Clark-Eden, who quickly slotted a ball to Ada Okorogheye out on the right flank. Okorogheye then flipped the ball in the air with just the right pace. Rapal was racing to his right across the box and got his head on the pass, flicking it back to the left and into the top left-corner of the goal for the 1-0 lead. 

"One thing I am really happy about is that we've played five games so far and we've had 23 different guys start a game," Serpone said. "I think of that as evidence that we have a team that is incredibly deep and uncommonly unselfish."

BY THE NUMBERS:

* Amherst finished the game with a 20-4 advantage in shots. They held a 6-2 edge in corner kicks. 

* Max Landa played all 90 minutes in goal for the Mammoths, making two saves. 

* There were no yellow or red cards in the contest.