WEST HARTFORD, Conn. – The University of Hartford dominated from kickoff to the final tick of the clock and took down the Siena Saints, 1-0, at Al-Marzook Field at Alumni Stadium on Friday night to remain unbeaten in 2013 with a mark of 2-0-1. Junior back Damion Lowe connected on the only goal of the evening, scoring for the first time this year in the 77th minute of play. The Saints drop to 1-1-0 on the young season.

Blasting 14 shots in the Saints' zone, Hartford's defense also dominated, conceding just one shot in each of the two periods. For the Hawks, rookie keeper David MacKinnon earned the shutout win in his first career start, however, as a result of Hartford's swarming defense, he was not called into action throughout the entire 90 minutes.

Hartford applied the pressure early, bombarding the Saints' defense with five shots in the opening six minutes of the match. Using great ball movement, the Hawks found gaps in their opponents' zone, creating several scoring opportunities to hold a commanding 6-1 advantage in that category through the first 45 minutes. During that opening stretch, Hartford's best scoring chance came off the head of senior David Bernhardsson, who drilled a shot on a feed from classmate Jon Gil and missed just wide of the mark in the ninth minute.

Things seemed to click on both sides of the pitch for Hartford as its defense did not give Siena a single look at the goal until more than 32 minutes in. In fact, it took almost 18 minutes for the Saints to even penetrate the Hawks' zone as they finally earned a corner kick, but could not muster up a shot off the opportunity.

A series of corner kicks within a two-minute span sparked the Saints' lone shot of the first half. Within one minute, Siena fired off three-consecutive corners, starting with a deep ball off the boot of James Beeston in the 30th minute. After coming up empty on those corner kicks, Siena earned two more, and finally mustered up a shot, a header from Needham in the 33rd minute.

From eight yards out, Needham could not convert as he watched his ball sail over the crossbar. Neither team found the back of the net in the closing minutes of the first, keeping the match remained deadlocked zero at halftime.

Before Lowe booted in the game-winning tally, Hartford created several exciting scoring opportunities in the minutes leading up to the marker. In minute 57, senior Anthony Santaga was served a ball inside of the box, but his header went just high of the mark. Less than two minutes later, Bernhardsson put the contest's first shot on goal in play, sending a bullet from point-blank towards the goal. Siena keeper Ryan Vyskocil, a rookie who earned his first career start, was up to the challenge, though, as he smothered the ball to keep the match scoreless.

The offense continued to generate for the Hawks as Santaga got another look at putting the first notch on the scoreboard just one minute after Bernharddson's attempt, but his screamer went just high over the crossbar.

With less than 20 minutes left, the Hawks had another near miss. From the right side of the field, Rohan Roye shifted sides, sending a pass to Javoni Simms who was open on the left. From the 22-yard mark, Simms pushed a low shot through the Saints' zone, but came just wide of the opposite goal post in the 72nd minute.

The game-decider was delivered with 13:49 remaining on the clock and stemmed from a corner kick from Bernhardsson. The striker sent a long cross to the far post, finding the head of Lowe. Lowe's shot bounced in the six-yard box, and went over the outstretched hand of Vyskocil to give the Hawks the 1-0 lead.

The Hawks hit the road for a Wednesday afternoon tilt at UMass (3:30 p.m.) before returning home on Friday evening to play host to American, the Patriot League runner-up, at 7 p.m.

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