CLARION, Pa. — With all due respect to Clarion, Fairmont State University’s football team was its own worst enemy on the field Thursday evening here in the season opener for both schools at Memorial Stadium.

Seven times the Falcons had the football inside the Golden Eagles’ 35-yard line in the contest and seven times FSU came away empty thanks to costly penalties, turnovers and a missed 42-yard field goal attempt which sailed wide right.

Clarion, on the other hand, didn’t fare much better, but Golden Eagle quarterback Ben Fiscus was able to connect with a wide open Mark Nicholas on a 27-yard scoring strike on a post pattern when FSU blew a coverage with 7:27 left in the third quarter to give his team all the points it would need en route to a 7-0 victory over the Falcons.

The shut out for Fairmont State was the first in almost two years. The 2010 Falcons were blanked 24-0 by UNC Pembroke back on Oct. 19 of that year.

“The result tonight, 7-0, is something I would have never predicted in a million years,” said FSU coach Mike Lopez, who lost a season opener for the first time since falling to the Golden Eagles 33-21 back in 2009. “For our offense to not capitalize on drives didn’t make sense. All spring and during fall camp we’ve done a good job offensively of putting together drives and scoring points.

“The bottom line is we’ve got to get better and we’ve got to get better in a hurry because it doesn’t get any easier. Give Clarion the credit tonight. They did a really good job of shutting down our run and making us resort more to the pass, especially in the second half.”

Despite its struggles Fairmont fought to the end and appeared poised to tie the contest and force overtime in the waning seconds. With Clarion looking to lockup the victory in the final three minutes, FSU cornerback Scott Davidson came hard off of the edge and blocked a Nathan Conway 29-yard field goal attempt to give his team the football with 2:56 left to play at its own 20.

Three completions from Falcon quarterback Bobby Vega to C.J. Goodwin helped take the football to the FSU 48 and a personal foul on the Golden Eagles gave the Falcons a first down at the Clarion 37.

After a 14-yard pass from Vega to Kenrick Washington gave FSU a first down on the Golden Eagles’ 23, Clarion was flagged for pass interference on the next play which gave Fairmont a first down at the hosts’ eight-yard line with 58 seconds remaining. Vega’s first down pass for Goodwin in the corner of the end zone was incomplete. On second down the Falcons were flagged for holding taking the football back to the 18. On the replay of second down Vega hooked up with Mark Sampson for 10 yards taking the football back to the eight. On third down FSU’s Matt Wilmer took a handoff and ran to the two-yard line, but the Falcons were whistled for an illegal block in the back at the five and the football was placed at the 15 after the penalty. Vega’s last two pass attempts into the end zone fell incomplete and Clarion ran out the final eight seconds for the win.

“Offensively, I put the blame on myself,” said Vega, a junior college transfer who completed 27-of-47 passes for 321 yards, but was intercepted twice in his first start in an FSU uniform. “You’ve got to put the ball in the end zone when you’re in positions like we were in tonight. We did have several penalties and some turnovers, but I’d like to think that was first-game jitters. Unfortunately they cost us tonight, but we’ve got to be able to overcome that and I think in the future we can clean some things up and do that.

“Our defense played great. They did their job. And Clarion played great. You’ve got to give them credit.”

The Golden Eagles’ defense stymied Fairmont’s running game which averaged 163.6 yards per contest last fall. Thursday night the Falcons were held to a mere 34 yards rushing as a team on 30 attempts.

Sophomore Daniel Monroe led FSU with just 37 yards on 19 rushes — an average of just 1.9 yards per carry.

FSU outgained Clarion 355-291 in total offense and held a 24-16 advantage in first downs, but the Falcons were flagged 11 times in the loss for 120 yards and most of those penalties came in crucial situations halting drives.

“We’re taught when we have a bad play to erase it from our memory and move on to the next so I really don’t want to use that as an excuse,” said FSU junior receiver Chris St. Hilaire, who led all receivers in the game with eight catches for 108 yards. “We made mistakes, but we’ve got to be able to overcome those and bounce back. That’s how you build team chemistry and unity.

“Football isn’t always a fair game. You win some, you lose some. Tonight we came out on the short end, but I’m confident we’ll get back to work next week, correct our mistakes and get better.”

Clarion was led by Fiscus, its junior quarterback, who completed 14-of-21 passes for 136 yards and was picked off once. He also ran for 77 yards on 15 carries. In addition, the Golden Eagles got a game-high 80 yards rushing from running back Bobby Thomas.

The Golden Eagles’ defense was paced by safety Andrew Paronish who had six tackles, a fumble recovery, and a fourth quarter interception he returned for 27 yards.

Fairmont State will attempt to bounce back Thursday evening when it opens West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play on the road against rival Glenville State at Morris Stadium. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. for that contest.