Sophomore Yanick Brown scored the game's lone goal 30:20 into the first half and St. Lawrence University's men's soccer team, ranked fourth nationally in Division III, won its fifth straight to open the season, 1-0 over Gordon College at Sandy MacAllaster Field Friday afternoon.

The Saints, 5-0-0, dominated the game, but couldn't put more than one goal past Fighting Scott goalkeeper Ryan Coil, who made six saves and had some help from the post and his defense. SLU outshot Gordon 17-3 and the Fighting Scots did not get their first shot attempt until 11:40 to play and Saint goalie Brian Abernethy made his lone save with 23 seconds to go, going high to save a curving shot from outside the box by Andrew Vandervoort.

Freshman Mark Provost set up the Saint goal as he made a run up the right side, crossing the ball to Brown who beat a defender at the top of the box and slid a shot under the arm of Coil and into the net from point blank range. It was the second goal of the season for Brown.

The Saints had several chances to add to their lead as they spent much of the game in Gordon territory, but couldn't find the net despite some golden opportunities.

"Our backs didn't give up a whole lot and we kept it a clean sheet which was one of our goals," said Saint coach Bob Durocher. "But I give Gordon a lot of credit. They had six guys missing from their lineup and they battled and battled. They outworked us and were mentally prepared better than we were."

Sean Scott had a shot saved by Coil 10 minutes into the second half and a rebound attempt was blocked on the goal line by John Clancy. Brown had a chance for his second of the game with 22:16 to play as he was open at the near post, but Sam DeMello's cross was tipped away by a Gordon defender. Alex Laird had a header slide just outside the post two minutes later and Scott hit the crossbar on a header with just over 12 minutes left in the game.

Abernethy finished with one save for his fourth straight win and third shutout of the season. The Saints had four corner kicks to three for Gordon.

"It doesn't matter who you're playing...Christopher Newport (current number one) or a team with six guys out of the lineup...we have to come out and do the things we work on all week. There is a standard we are trying to reach and we have to get to that level where we play our game no matter who we are playing if we are going to get to the championship level," Durocher added.