Box Score New Paltz, NY – History was officially made Saturday for the State University of New York at New Paltz men's soccer program.

The Hawks, who had already clinched a berth in the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) tournament, needed a win to guarantee the team's first home playoff game since 2004. It wasn't easy, playing against defending conference champion SUNY Oneonta, but SUNY New Paltz showed its grit defensively and resiliency in overcoming a tough early week loss to play one of its best games of the season, ultimately walking away with a 2-1 victory over the visiting Red Dragons.

"I am thrilled. It was a great game, hard fought," said Hawks coach Kyle Clancy. "We put great pressure on them the entire game. They did what they would do down and goal and really tried to press forward and put us under a lot and our guys were resilient, battled and did an awesome job. I can't be more proud of them, amazing." 

SUNY New Paltz (11-5-1 overall, 6-2-1 SUNYAC) was determined to bounce back from a disappointing 4-2 loss at home in a non-conference game against William Patterson Tuesday. Its defense had one of its worst outings and knew going up against SUNY Oneonta (9-4-4, 5-2-2) the effort needed to improve. The result was a defensive clinic from the Hawks.

"We had a plan. We knew they were definitely switching long like they did a lot. They do a really good job with their center back's to switch it to the opposite side, which can put us on our back foot, but we were expecting that," said SUNY New Paltz junior defender Gordon Walker. "Really just getting back and covering quickly, shuffling out to the wing quickly and then doubling down on players who are very good technically, are very quick and could be very dangerous with the ball at their feet."

The Red Dragons held possession for most of the first half in the Hawks' defensive half, but the hosts refused to allow anything dangerous around the box. They defended as a unit and blocked any type of crosses, while SUNY New Paltz goalkeeper John Guzzo did a good job coming off his line and snagging early balls played over the top.  

The Hawks were patient offensively and waited for their opportunities. They crossed midfield for the first time nearly 10 minutes in and took advantage on their first true scoring opportunity in the 26th minute.

Ryan Martinez earned a throw deep in the Red Dragons' defensive third and in came Kevin Doorley who sailed his throw into the box, finding the head of Luke Dole. Dole used all of his 6-foot, 4-inch frame to his advantage to out-jump three SUNY Oneonta defenders to get a flick on where it was met by Walker inside the six-yard box. Walker then headed in his first career goal to give SUNY New Paltz the opening, 1-0 lead.

"Right away, I had too much adrenaline in me. I started running around and I couldn't stand still," recalled Walker of his post-goal reaction. "I went all the way back to celebrate with the bench. I don't usually get a lot of goals. This is the first goal of my career, so I just had to run around and celebrate with everyone on my team."

Walker got his first start of the season at left back Saturday and played a career-high 72 minutes. He was crucial defensively, playing composed throughout the game with his goal highlighting a productive day.

"He has come on strong," said Clancy of Walker. "He is a left-footed player and I was telling the guys, he is extremely confident. No matter what, whether he's played 60 minutes or 1,000 minutes in the season, he is confident in his ability. I thought he was fantastic defensively. I thought he helped us stay organized and disciplined and it was awesome seeing him get a goal and he deserves it. It was a great, great performance."

The Red Dragons out-shot the Hawks 4-1 at the half, while earning a corner and three free kick opportunities inside SUNY New Paltz's defensive side of the field, but still trailed by one at the break.

With SUNY Oneonta seemingly frustrated, the Hawks started finding more openings in the following 45 minutes and took just 10 minutes into the second to net their second goal.

Martinez ran on to a ball played down the sideline, beat his defender to get a cross off, which was perfectly placed to a wide-open Doorley running on into the six-yard box. Doorley headed his shot neatly into the left corner out of the out-stretch arms of Red Dragons goalkeeper Nicholas Giordano to put his team up, 2-0.

The score remained 2-0 for about 15 more minutes, as the Hawks did a solid job of not allowing the Red Dragons to switch the point of attack. A big reason in that was the work of Schuyler Mann in the middle of the field, who ate up any 50-50 balls, and shut down SUNY Oneonta's potent offensive weapons in Witman Hernandez and Roberto Ventura.

"He was massive. He is an exceptional player and when he is playing at that level there is not many people that can beat him," Clancy said of Mann. "He is a beast defensively. He is confident on the ball, so I was extremely proud to see the growth in him in this game. He shut down [Ventura] for 90 percent of the game. I think that goes to the entire team. It was the effort. They battled and they were covering for each other. It was awesome to see." 

Jorge Hernandez came off the bench to score the Red Dragons' lone goal on an impressive strike just inside the 25-yard box in the 72nd minute. But, SUNY New Paltz's defense remained composed and continued holding off SUNY Oneonta's pressing attack, not allowing anything else too dangerous on net to close out the, 2-1 victory.

"We wanted to keep them from switching as much as possible. You can see in the last 10 minutes when they can switch the point of attack they are extremely dangerous as a team," Clancy said. "They also attack with their outside backs high, so we felt if we could stay organized, win the ball, counter through those spots that was going to be an opportunity for us to get some chances. And also, we're a pretty good team in the box on corners and long throws and I am glad we got one there today. We figured defend well, catch them on a couple counters, catch them on a couple set pieces and that hopefully will get us a result."

The Hawks totaled just two shots on goal and one corner to SUNY Oneonta's four shots on target and three corners, but took better advantage of their chances. Guzzo, playing for the full 90-minute contest since suffering a groin injury earlier in the year, made three saves on the day.

The victory, coupled by a loss from The College at Brockport gave SUNY New Paltz the No. 2 seed in the SUNYAC Tournament – its highest seed in program history.

"We started something special when Clancy came in and we knew we had to change this program around and we did it, and it was for the better. I'm glad we're going to end on this note. The ball is still rolling, so we're not done yet," said Hawks senior Michael Sguera, who, along with fellow seniors Sebastian G-S-Archer, Manny Flory, Khalil Scott-Ludewig, Victor Dowsley Lifschitz, Brendan McGaley and Guzzo, were honored prior to the game. "Oneonta is a hell of a team, great players, great overall program and we knew what we were getting in to, but we knew we were going to out-work them and after every practice we knew what we came to do. We completed our job. This has never been done in program history to get the second seed in SUNYAC's so, the boys are buzzing."

The Hawks are given a bye into the semifinal round and will play the winner of No. 3 Golden Eagles and No. 6 Plattsburgh State Oct. 31 on the South Turf Field at 1 p.m. 

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