After already acquiring the first season-opening win in team history and the first back-to-back home wins as well, the RailHawks notched the first three-game win streak after downing the Minnesota Thunder 1-0.

Despite a massive overhaul of personnel — there are 21 new players on the roster — and a new coach, the team has three wins in just as many games to start the 2009 season, and the RailHawks are perched atop the USL-1 standings.

"We're really happy because we've made a lot of changes, signed a lot of players and this is our first three games, they were all at home, they were big games for us and for us to get off to three wins is encouraging and it builds confidence," first-year coach Martin Rennie.

Rennie said he hasn't been surprised by the way his new players, brought in from different corners of the world, have been able to mesh quickly and produce winning results.

"I'm really pleased because they've been able to put their own ideas to one side and put the team's ideas first and that's how you can make it happen quicker," Rennie said.

"Sometimes you have to break the will of players until they're willing to do it but these guys were willing to do it right away so that helps a lot. They're good guys."

Sunday's game was a far cry from the first meeting between the two teams that kick-started the season and ended with a 2-1 RailHawk win.

That game on April 11 saw the teams combine for 27 shots — or 16 more than on Sunday. The RailHawks had averaged 14.5 shots in their first two games, but had just three at halftime of a scoreless game.

Rennie said the 90-plus degree weather had an affect on both teams' ability to score.

"On a hot day like this, a lot of times it ends up nil-nil. A lot of games in this league end us as a tie, so every win makes a big difference," Rennie said.

"It's hard to score goals because with the tempo of the game slowed, it's hard to move the opposition. But I thought in the end we created enough to win and we did."

But in the 58th minute, Carolina broke through.

Midfielder Josh Gardener sent a ball into the box hoping to find a streaking Brian Plotkin.

Plotkin originally missed on the ball and it crossed behind him. But when Plotkin turned, he found that a Thunder defender had cleared it into the back of a teammate and the ball was bouncing backwards towards the goal.

Plotkin, who had came to a stop about four feet in front of the goal, buried it for a 1-0 lead that was never relinquished.

"Coming in, right before we played these guys the first time in the opener coach said we had a really good opportunity to stamp our foot and let the league know the RailHawks aren't they've been the last couple of years," Plotkin said. "... here we are now — nine points, three games later."

It was the talented midfielder's first goal of the year, and he could've easily had two after a shot from 35 yards out deflected off the crossbar in the 29th minute.

Rennie said he hopes this game means Plotkin — who was a member of two national championship teams at Indiana and was runner-up for the 2005 Herman Trophy, given to the nation's top college player — can start to regain the form he showed in his days as a Hoosier.

"You don't achieve things like that without having a lot of ability, and hopefully we're just helping him rebuild his career, and he'll up us while he does that," Rennie said.

The victory was also the second straight 1-0 win for the RailHawks.

After three home games to start the year, the RailHawks will take to the road for the first time on Thursday, when they travel to Portland. The team will play the second of two games at Portland on Saturday.