TAMPA, Fla. – Entering action as the nation's most prolific scoring team, it would be a different style of game as Clayton State (4-0, 0-0 PBC) relied on their defense and the nation's leading scorer to pull out a hard fought 1-0 victory at Tampa (1-2, 0-0 SSC) in an NCAA Division II men's soccer game on Saturday, September 14.
 
Taking on a team that had dominated the all-time series to the tune of 7-2-2, including a 5-1 mark in Tampa, the Lakers faced an uphill battle from the beginning despite having scored the most goals in the nation at 14. Through the first five minutes it wouldn't look like it though.
 
Applying pressure with a pair of early shots, redshirt-senior midfielder Ryan King (County Durham, England), the nation's leading scorer with six goals, would make it seven with just 4:39 gone by. Setting up that score would be senior defender Hector Gutierrez (Asheville, N.C.) who drove the ball up the right wing and sent a hard cross into the box – right to the feet of King who one touched it home for the 1-0 advantage.
 
Coming in averaging 4.67 goals per game the odds would be that Clayton State would see more goals but that would not be the case. The defense didn't look at it that way as they took no chances and made that one score hold up, turning away 14 shots that included three on frame to secure the 1-0 victory.
 
That clean sheet marks the third straight for the Lakers and is just the ninth time in program history that that has been accomplished. The last of those came during the 2010 season with a 3-0 win over Erskine (9/15), 1-0 blanking of Francis Marion (9/18) and another 3-0 victory, this time against Lincoln Memorial (3-0).
 
The all-time program record is five straight from September 30 through October 13 in 2009 while the 2000 team put together two such streaks (August 27 through September 3, October 28 through November 5). The only other team to record at least four straight shutouts is the 2001 squad which did so from October 13-27.
 
Rojay Smith led Tampa with five shots and had one of the three on net while Julius Becker and Omar Thali each had four attempts and the other shots on goal to comprise their offense. Jake Richards played all 90 minutes and allowed just the one score while making a pair of saves to fall to 1-2 on the year.
 
It would be another impressive performance for Clayton State, just more so on the defensive side of the ball. King would notch the only offense with his seventh goal of the year off of Gutierrez's assist and would be the only Laker to finish with more than one shot, coming in at two, putting both of those on net.
 
Anchoring the defense would be junior goalkeeper Theo Blachon (St. Etienne, France) with his third straight shutout. In 90 minutes of action he made three saves against a team that just game off of a four goal effort and moved to 4-0 on the year.
 
"A defensive show for sure," said head coach Pete Petersen. "We started out aggressive, scored a goal then we were up and down the rest of the game and couldn't get any rhythm. No style points but the three points we got for the win is huge for these guys. Tampa is always class and always plays the game how it should be played which is rare."
 
The Lakers return home to face former Peach Belt Conference member Montevallo (1-1-1) on Thursday, September 19. Game time is set for 7 p.m. under the lights at Laker Field.
 
NOTES
With the win, this year's team is the fifth in program history to notch victories in each of their first four games … the 2000 and 2010 squads each won their first eight, 2002 their first seven and the inaugural team in 1992 their first four – all by shutout no less.