When Chris McClellan first pulled on a pair of goalkeeper’s gloves and a jersey different than the rest of his teammates as a third grader near Boulder, Colo., he began a pursuit with an end he knows is unattainable.

While he can reach most every shot that comes blistering his way, he’ll never grasp what he constantly strives for — perfection.

Yet that is what precisely what makes him throw his body around the 18-by-44-yard penalty area and allow people to blast a ball as hard as 60 mph at his 6-foot-1-inch frame.

“I love the aspect of trying to be perfect,” said McClellan, who’s logged every minute of the Carolina RailHawks’ 12 USL First Division matches this season. “I know I never will be perfect, but I love the training and trying to be.”

McClellan hasn’t been perfect for the first-year franchise, but he’s been awfully good.

As of Monday, McClellan had allowed eight goals, had a 0.67 goals against average (both second in the league), and he was tied for the league lead in shutouts (six). Part of McClellan’s success stems from the defense in front of him, which limits opponents to 7.91 shots per game and calls on him to make 3.42 saves per outing.

“He’s very vocal back there and he directs what we don’t see,” said Carolina defender and captain Frankie Sanfilippo. “He’s just a great shot stopper right now and he’s helping us a lot. He’s coming up with big saves when we need them and what we do for him as a defense is make guys not get many shots on him.”

McClellan, low key and laid back off the field, transforms into a fiery competitor on it. At a recent training session, he made two absurd saves back to back from inside of 10 yards, but when the third rebound snuck by him, he jumped up, kicked one of the goal posts and screamed “C’mon!”

Some might think a goalkeeper’s only job is to keep the ball out of the net. If he doesn’t have to make a save, then he’s free to stand in his box like a disinterested Little Leaguer watching dandelions grow in right field.

But Carolina’s defense starts with McClellan. He organizes the four defenders in front of him and is always barking instructions to ensure they keep their shape.

“Everything sets up right in front of him and he reads the game so well,” said Carolina coach Scott Schweitzer. “He can put players were they need to be so he’s always organized. There’s always times when you’re not directly involved in the game, and I need for them to listen to him so they get to where he needs them to be. He’s setting himself up because he wants to play defense a certain way.”

Since the defense is so well organized and minimizes its mistakes, McClellan is rarely out of position or makes mistakes of his own.

“His positioning is probably what is his best attribute,” said David Noyes, Carolina’s goalkeepers coach. “He has an uncanny ability to read the game. He knows where to be, and that’s why you see some of the saves he’s been making — because he puts himself in position where he can actually reach for the upper corner.”

McClellan distinguished himself to RailHawks brass after strong showings in the organization’s fall and spring tryouts. When he signed with the team, Carolina already had one goalkeeper on the roster — John O’Hara, who guided Sligo Rovers of the Football League of Ireland to the 2005 league championship.

But Carolina never identified a No. 1 goalkeeper. Schweitzer said he, his staff and the front office wanted to bring in a second top-flight keeper, which would force both players to constantly push the other for the right to play.

“In the preseason, you’re looking for guys that are going to bring 100 percent to the table every time they step on the field,” McClellan said. “Not that John wasn’t doing that, but it was something that Scott’s told me over and over is what’s got me through, in his mind, and given him confidence in me.”

McClellan spent the last four years playing for the Charlotte Eagles, a USL Second Division team he joined after exhausting his eligibility at Colorado Christian University in 2002 (he is still working toward a degree). In Charlotte, McClellan toiled on the bench the first two seasons and got only a handful of minutes.

Though he said he had opportunities to go elsewhere, he decided he was going to win the No. 1 spot in 2005.

He earned a shutout in the season’s first match, and he didn’t give up his job until the middle of the 2006 season when he tore the meniscus in his right knee and missed the remainder of the year.

In 2005, McClellan was named USL-2’s Goalkeeper of the Year and helped the Eagles win the league championship.

He also turned in a performance for the ages in that summer’s U.S. Open Cup. Against MLS’ Chivas USA in the third round, McClellan faced 36 shots and made 17 saves. Despite his heroics, the Eagles still suffered a 3-2 double-overtime loss.

“When I walk around in Charlotte, people are like, ‘Aren’t you the guy who played against Chivas?’ That was a great game,” McClellan said, his face lighting up at the memory. “It took 11 guys on the team to be in that game. My job was to keep the ball out of the net. That was a fun game; very memorable. All of us who were on the team will never forget that, but it was an unfortunate end.”

With Carolina, McClellan and the RailHawks had an unfortunate start to their inaugural season. They lost all five exhibition games, including three to college teams, and were outscored 13-4.

“The expectations were so high, we weren’t meeting anyone’s,” McClellan said. “But we were still growing. It was almost like an infant. We were just learning to breathe and learning to walk.”

Carolina has shown plenty of promise throughout the season, while still exhibiting signs of a first-year club. Surely, they have surpassed most outsiders’ expectations by entering the week in seventh place and in the hunt for one of the league’s eight playoff spots.

McClellan has twice flirted with MLS’ Colorado Rapids, the team that practiced 10 minutes from his home and played its games 20 minutes away. In 2003, he was brought in as a trainee. But rather than be a “training dummy” he joined a friend in England and got a trial with Walsall FC.

He would’ve stayed, but he could not get an English work permit — an often head-scratching bureaucratic experience endured by many foreign-born footballers in the U.K. — so he returned to the U.S and latched on with Charlotte.

He was again in discussions with the Rapids this spring. He believed this was his year to finally get a chance in the country’s top division. But the Rapids traded for a goalkeeper in early March, and they spent their first-round draft pick in January on North Carolina’s Justin Hughes.

But McClellan doesn’t dwell on that setback. In his what will be, will be demeanor, he’ll gladly take the opportunity if it comes. Just the same, he’ll be happy to play out the rest of his career in Cary.

Simply by playing professionally, he followed the path he wanted to since he realized after his first season in the Premier Development League that he was good enough to do so. And as long as someone has a spot for him, that’s what he’ll continue to do.

“As long as I can play, I’m going to play,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what level it is. If I’m 40 and I’m playing in a U.S. Open Cup for an amateur team, that’s cool with me. I’ll play at the highest level I can play at until I can’t play anymore.”

To McClellan, that scenario is perfect.