LEWISTON, Maine -- With a berth in the eight-team NESCAC Championships at stake, Colby College scored on a pair of headers, one off a corner kick and another off a throw-in, to defeat the Bates College men's soccer team 2-0 in the regular-season finale for both teams Wednesday night at Garcelon Field.

Needing a win or a tie in the game to get into the postseason, the Mules (7-5-3, 3-5-2 NESCAC) earned the seventh seed in the tournament and will play at second-seeded Amherst in the conference quarterfinals on Saturday at 12pm.

Bates (4-9-2, 2-7-1 NESCAC) needed to win to extend its season. After beginning the season 0-6-1, the Bobcats finished 4-3-1 over the final eight games of the season, including a 2-3-1 mark in the NESCAC.

Bates nearly got on the scoreboard first in the 15th minute, when a cross by first-year Sal Sprofera (Medfield, Mass.) found its way to junior Luis Pereira (Curitiba, Brazil) off the left post. Pereira was able to get his head on the ball and it glanced off the goalpost before getting cleared away by the Mules.

Colby first scored in the game's 24th minute. Dan Vogel lofted a corner kick from the right corner to the left side of the face of Bates' goal. Evan Dwyer alertly headed the ball over to the nearby Tim Stanton, who dropped down for a low header that found the inside of the far right post. It was Stanton's first goal this season.

Colby nearly made it 2-0 with 3:55 left in the half when Charlie Dupee hit the crossbar.

Colby earned an insurance goal in the 73rd minute on a similar play, albeit a throw-in by Vogel. The ball glanced off the back of Stanton's head on traveled on to  Dwyer on the weak side of the box for a hard header past Bates goalie Sam Polito (Far Hills, N.J.), who didn't have enough time to react to the shot.

Needing two goals just to send the game into overtime, the Bobcats had perhaps their closest attempt at a goal soon after Dwyer's tally, when senior Sean Moyo (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe) boomed a laser from 30 yards out that went just wide left of the post.

The Bobcats attempted 18 shots to Colby's 16, but the vast majority of them were deflected or wide. Bates put two shots on goal to Colby's eight.

Colby goalie Peter Quayle started in net and earned the win despite recording no saves. Quayle was injured in the 34th minute and relieved by first-year John Pappas, who preserved the shutout with two saves in 57 minutes.

Polito made six saves for Bates, including two when he charged out of the net on a pair of Colby breakaways in the waning minutes of the game.

Wearing the Bates soccer uniform for the last time were seniors Jonathan Lin (Natick, Mass.), Moyo, captain Aaron Nickelsberg (Concord, Mass.), Lee Sandquist (Doylestown, Pa.), Nick Sorice (Pelham, N.Y.) and Jason Stephansky (Whitman, Mass.).