Despite coming away with two tough losses in its first SUNYAC weekend, the State University of New York at New Paltz men's soccer team remains confident.
The Hawks (4-5) played a strong game against SUNY Cortland, which currently sits atop the conference standings, as the garnered numerous chances on net and held the Red Dragons scoreless for 89 minutes. They hope to take that momentum into their first home SUNYAC weekend of the season against The College at Brockport and SUNY Geneseo Friday and Saturday.
"I know we can come out strong," said SUNY New Paltz junior defender Sebastian Gordon-Somers-Archer. "We held Cortland to a close game last weekend. We had the chances, but it didn't come together. But this weekend I am confident the boys will have the energy and the effort to put the final ball into the net and get a 'W' this weekend."
The Hawks were shut out in back-to-back games for the first time all year against Oswego State and Cortland in two 1-0 decisions, with both goals against coming off crosses inside the box.
All week SUNY New Paltz made a conscious effort to work on marking inside the 18, and perfecting its runs and passes in the final third. Both factors will prove pivotal heading into their match ups against the Golden Eagles and Knights.
"It is extremely important to come out with two wins this weekend," Gordon-Somers-Archer said. "We have the team to do it. We have the talent. We just got to put the final pieces together."
Brockport (5-2-2) is coming off a fairly successful weekend, beating Fredonia State 3-2 and tying Buffalo State 1-1.
The Golden Eagles have averaged about 1.8 goals per game, and have conceded an average of 1.3 goals against. Quintin Volpe leads the team offensively, totaling five goals on 26 shot attempts. Chris Aherne follows with four goals on eight shot attempts. Joseph Romano has played the majority of minutes in goal and has allowed 12 shots against and totaled 37 saves in eight starts.
"Brockport is usually a physical team," Gordon-Somers-Archer said. "They like to play the long ball a lot. They power forward, every set piece that they take they put in the box, every throw in they had they just tossed it. So, what we'll try to do is play physical against them, but keep playing our game. Put it on the ground, keep playing around them and hopefully we can be the decisive team this weekend, and put it away."
The Knights (4-3-1) took a 1-0 loss to the Bengals, but defeated the Blue Devils, 2-1 in double overtime to earn their first conference win.
Geneseo has only scored 10 goals this season with Joey Vucic (two goals, two assists) and Bryan Wager (three goals). Defensively the Knights are sound, allowing less than a goal per game. Dillon Medd has started all eight games thus far in net and has totaled 31 saves with a .795 save percentage and one shut out.
"Geneseo is always a good opponent to go against," said Gordon-Somers-Archer. "They are always really close to us in level. We just need to keep playing our game. I know they like to play with it on the ground. They have some quick forwards up top, so we just got to stay strong mentally and we'll be fine this weekend."
The Hawks are set to take on Brockport Friday at 3 p.m. and Geneseo Saturday at 1 p.m. For live updates and highlights of both games, be sure to follow @nphawks on Twitter.
