NEW YORK- The Hunter College men's soccer team earned its first win of the season on Monday, defeating New Jersey City University, 1-0, on Randall's Island.

The Hawks (1-2-1) showed significant improvement from the start of the season, highlighted by crisp ball movement and disciplined play as they approach the beginning of conference action. Hunter committed just one offside infraction, a marked improvement from its previous home outing.

The Purple and Gold outshot NJCU (0-3-1) 24-17 and posted 11 shots on goal compared to five for the visitors. Rookie forward Brandon Fridburg came off the bench to lead the offense with six shots, including two on target. David Zlobinsky added a career-high five attempts, while Leonardo Kaplan and Patrick Irving tallied three each. Irving was especially accurate, with all three of his shots on frame. Behjon Alerte and Georgios Tsiakas each contributed two shots, and Abdullah Al Maghrabi chipped in one while playing a key role in the midfield, sending several long balls setting the offense up for multiple attempts on goal. 

On the back line, Conor Sullivan, Fernando Zuvela and Samuel Benson played the full 90 minutes, anchoring the defense and limiting scoring chances. Freshman goalkeeper Matthew Fridburg impressed in his collegiate debut, recording five saves to preserve the shutout.

The Hawks generated nine shots in the first half before ramping up the attack with 15 in the second. They also earned seven corner kicks, six coming after halftime.

The breakthrough came in the 83rd minute, when Brandon Fridburg dribbled past a defender and the goalkeeper before laying off a pass to Allan Conway, who buried the game-winner for his first goal of the season. Zuvela sealed the result in the final minute by stifling a one-on-one opportunity to eliminate NJCU's last chance to equalize.

The victory marked the first career win for head coach Evan Reifsnyder.

Hunter returns to the pitch on Sept. 13 for a 1 p.m. start at University of Mount Saint Vincent.