New Paltz, NY – The State University of New York at New Paltz men's lacrosse team suffered a 14-5 loss Friday against visiting Potsdam on the South Turf Field.

The Hawks (0-5 overall, 0-3 SUNYAC) took an early lead in the first quarter, responding with back-to-back goals after taking advantage of consecutive penalties by the Bears (4-3, 3-1). Ryan Scully registered his fourth and fifth goal of the season just 20 seconds apart with helpers from Aiden Jones and Elias Elcock. Potsdam managed to tie up the score with five minutes remaining in the quarter, as the 2-2 stalemate carried over to the second period.

After Ryan Spaman gave Potsdam back the lead with about 13 minutes remaining, SUNY New Paltz succumbed to an own-goal about a minute later. Dylan Fraser made a nice play to pick off a Bears pass as they tried to work the ball inside in front of the cage, but as Fraser went to give it back to Nate Lindsey in goal for the clear, the ball slipped out of his stick and accidently tricked into the back of the net to give Potsdam a 4-2 lead.

Momentum shifted from there. Potsdam won the ensuing faceoff, but the Hawks defense held to give their offense a chance on the other end. Scully fired a shot that was saved by Liam O'Neill who came in eight minutes into the game to relieve starter Ben Fuchs. The Bears successfully cleared their zone after the save and scored on the other end before taking took advantage of a SUNY New Paltz penalty to go up, 6-2 with nine minutes left in the quarter. After losing the ensuing faceoff, the Hawks defense hung in tough again with Lindsey making a save on a shot by Potsdam's Bryley Fredrick. SUNY New Paltz got a stick on the rebound attempt by Peyton Walsh and then won the ground ball before giving it to Lindsey to clear, but the sophomore had his stick checked by Cam Talcott who picked up the ground ball and placed his second of the day in the back of the net.
 

"Young-minded mistakes, lack of experience mistakes definitely those are things that need to be corrected, but also those are once-in-a-lifetime things that these guys are going to experience," said SUNY New Paltz coach Dwayne Stewart. "Those are things that we definitely need to correct and that is what we're looking forward to this week in practice."

Potsdam pushed its lead to 8-2 with about four minutes left following a goal by Talcott, but the Hawks answered to end the half. Off a failed clear attempt by the Bears, SUNY New Paltz worked the ball around and Ryan Kaelin found an open John Reese for the goal to cut the deficit, 8-3 at the break.

The Hawks struggled to get offensive possessions in the second half as they turned the ball over 11 times, clearing the ball over midfield just six of 12 attempts and registered just 12 shots in the final 30 minutes.
 

SCORE UPDATE: @NPMensLacrosse currently all tied up with the Potsdam Bears through 1 quarter. Ryan Sculpt scoring fast and early, having both of the Hawks goals!

Hawks-2
Bears-2#NPLax #SUNYAC #D3Lax #NPHawks pic.twitter.com/RZs8OLyqlQ

— New Paltz Hawks (@nphawks) April 16, 2021

Scully scored his third of the game three minutes into the second half to cut the core, 9-4, but Potsdam rattled off five unanswered goals before Justin Pollak netted his first of the season off a feed from Scully with about six minutes left in the game. 

"I think we're really young and anything that happens that's negative it's blown up bigger than what it should be," Stewart said. "We don't have that mentality yet of a seasoned team where we forget and forgive and keep it moving forward and find out what works best for us. We have a lot of things that we need to continue to work on, whether we have a full roster or not and it's going to happen big time. We just got to keep pushing forward." 
Scully paced the Hawks offense, registering a point in four of five goals after totaling three goals and an assist on seven shots. Long pole defenseman Tim Russell had a solid game, finishing with a game-high seven ground balls and going 6-for-10 on faceoffs to lead the team. Lindsey finished with 11 saves in the loss, while freshman Ryan Steinhart came in for relief in the second half and made five stops.

"Offense in the first half I feel like we were definitely working on the things that we needed to work on last game and it looked decent," Stewart said. "Our pace was not where it should have been, but it was happening and they were getting to their spots. From a defensive standpoint we've been really strong there, but when we give up the ball in the clear its right back on the defensive side and [that's when] they get worn out really quickly. Second half kind of got away from us but hoping that we start to fix that moving forward."

SUNY New Paltz has two more games left on its schedule, hosting SUNY Plattsburgh April 23 and then SUNY Oneonta April 30 to conclude its 2021 campaign.

To stay up to date with everything #NPHawks be sure to follow us on Twitter at @nphawks, Instagram and Facebook at @newpaltzhawks, and subscribe to our Youtube channel, New Paltz Hawks.