Newburgh, NY — The State University of New York at New Paltz men's lacrosse team (0-3) fell to Mount St.Mary College (3-0) 10-9 Thursday in a battle all the way to overtime. 
 
The Hawks started out the game with a bang, scoring two goals in the first two minutes by freshman attacker James Flanagan and sophomore attacker John Reese. The Hawks closed the first quarter with four goals and leading in shots, 15-9. 
 
"James and John both played great. It helped [give] us the energy that we needed to fight against a scrappy team like [Mount Saint Mary]," said SUNY New Paltz coach Dwayne Stewart. "Moving forward, we hope that what we were able to accomplish today on offense is just the start. We need to continue to grow so we have more contributions from other players". 
 
The second quarter was back and forth between the Knights and the Hawks. Ending the half with SUNY New Paltz up by just one goal. 
 
"Mount Saint Mary did a very good job possessing the ball in the second half," Stewart said. "Also, they did well in [their] riding game to create more opportunities for themselves on their offensive end."
 
The Hawks started the second half with a faceoff win by freshman faceoff specialist Ethan Scully which led to a ground ball pick up by Elias Elcock and then a goal by Flanagan, his fourth and final goal of the game. After a back and fourth third quarter the Knights closed the gap to just one goal at 8-7 entering the fourth by scoring two goals in a five minute span. 
 
"Ethan had a great day. He gave us more chances on offense to figure out how to find the back of the goal," Stewart said. "Without his success against a very good face off specialist, it would've [been] harder for us to gain as much possession time."
 
In the final quarter of the game, SUNY New Paltz played quite a bit of defense to start out. After seven shots, Mount Saint Mary squeaked the eighth through to take the 9-8 lead with 10:42 left in the game. The Hawks found their footing back on attack and only took a few more shots before Reese put in his second for the game to tie the score. With seven minutes left in the game the teams battled for the final goal. SUNY New Paltz took control in the final 30 seconds taking four shots, but all went wide and high before entering overtime. 
 
"Both of our goalies played well, again. They kept us in the fight and ultimately gave us a great chance at a victory," said Stewart. 
 
Extra time was over in just more than a minute, as Mount Saint Mary won the face off and took it right into the Hawks defensive zone where the Knights' Nick Guerello scored his fourth goal of the game and the winning goal to defeat the Hawks, 10-9. 
 
Despite the loss, SUNY New Paltz had its best offensive performance of the season with nine goals scored, while also finishing with a season-high 46 shots. Flanagan led the way with four goals and two assists to go along with three ground balls. Reese followed with two goals and an assist and tied for the team-lead with four ground balls. Lindsey earned the start in goal for the Hawks and made five saves, while Steinhart finished out the game and tallied eight stops. 
 
"Today we played with a better understanding of what we wanted out of our offensive possessions," Stewart said. "We played with more confidence as well. I believe that is what led us to our highest output of goals score."

SUNY New Paltz plays again Saturday at 2p.m. in its first home game of the season against Mount Saint Vincent.

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