Potsdam, NY- After a first half primarily played in the middle portion of the field, the Clarkson University Men's Soccer team capitalized on one of the few chances of the game late in the second half to pick up a 1-0 victory over St. John Fisher on Friday afternoon. 

The Golden Knights add their first win of the new campaign while the Cardinals drop to 0-1-0 in what was the first competitive contest of the year for each program. 

Possession was the name of the game in the first half as both teams struggled to gain the edge in the midfield and defensive battles. The best chance of the opening 45 came St. John Fisher's way as a Clarkson foul near the left corner of the 18 box resulted in a dangerous free kick for the visitors. The Golden Knight wall held strong and blocked the ensuing kick clearing the danger. The Cardinals outshot the Knights 3-0 and won five corner kicks to Clarkson's zero in the opening stanza. 

Play would open up in the second half as both teams began to take risks going forward in an effort to create the breakthrough chance. Eric McKean nearly opened the scoring less than a minute in on a dipping free kick shot, sent over the wall that was headed towards the top corner before the Cardinals' goalie Christian Burkhart made an impressive stop, tipping the ball off the crossbar and out for a corner kick. 

Fisher began to ask questions of the Golden Knight back line with a string of dangerous possessions but could not find the finishing touch as key defensive interventions and a number of athletic, aerial grabs by junior keeper Carter Kladstrup kept the game knotted at 0-0.

Clarkson eventually found the breakthrough with about 14 minutes to play. After some nice play out of the back Josh Conklin played a nice ball out wide to Logan Drake who had space in front of him. After a show of nice footwork Drake floated a ball to the back post finding the head of Zach Shufelt who tucked it into the bottom right side of Burkhart's net at 76:06. 

The Cardinals continued to push for the equalizer but faced a tough task in getting past Kladstrup, who had a sequence of double saves on the edge of the penalty box followed by a towering midair grab on a corner kick with less than one minute remaining. 

Kladstrup finished with three saves in the shutout while Burkhart registered one. Fisher ended with an edge in shots and shots on goal in the contest.