Worcester, Mass. – In a contest that was incredibly evenly played, Brandies University scored the game's lone goal in the 50th minute and the visiting No.7 Judges came away with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Clark University in non-league men's soccer action on Friday evening at the Granger Soccer Complex.

With the victory, Brandeis improves to 4-1 on the season and pushes head coach Mike Coven's career win total to 499 in advance of tomorrow's home tilt against regional power Babson College.

For the Cougars, meanwhile, the loss for them is their second straight as they now sit at 2-2-1.

Clark actually had a few chances to get on the board in the first half but couldn't cash in. The first came in the 28th minute when freshman Pirro Tomco (Worcester, Mass.) sent a low rocket that went just left of the goal post.

The Scarlet and White found themselves with another fantastic chance to break the seal when a Brandeis turnover deep in their own end led to Vinny Morra (East Setauket, N.Y.) going in on the Judges' Ben Woodhouse (Suffield, Conn.) but his shot went wide left.

Early into the second half, Brandeis finally broke through when Patrick Flahive (Chatham, Ill.) sent a sliding pass to Jake Picard (Suffield, Conn.) who directed a shot through traffic that got past Connor Maguire (Dunstable, Mass.) at 49:22.

The Judges nearly doubled their lead moments later when Kyle Robinson (York, Maine) unleashed a blast from the left side of the box but his shot sailed too much and banged off the crossbar.

Clark had another true scoring chance in the 85th minute but Kyle Russo (Westford, Mass.) saw his shot go high over the crossbar.

After a slow first half, the teams combined for 17 second half shots and both ended with 12 overall.

Brandeis had seven corner kicks, compared to the six for the Cougars and both goalkeepers – Woodhouse for Brandeis and Maguire for Clark – each made three stops in their respective 90 minutes of action.

While the Judges play on Saturday afternoon against Babson, Clark is off until Wednesday when they host Eastern Nazarene at 7:00 p.m.