Farmingdale, NY — The State University of New York at New Paltz men's lacrosse team fell to Farmingdale State Saturday, 13-9.
 
Farmingdale began scoring for the day just more than three minutes in by freshman Hunter Lyons, unassisted. The Hawks answered back roughly a minute and a half later with a goal by junior midfielder Aiden Jones with the assist from freshman attacker James Flannagan. The score didn't stay even for long. Farmingdale put in three more before the end of the quarter giving themselves a 4-1 lead. 
 
The Rams came out on fire in the second quarter, putting in another three straight in the first five minutes. Sophomore attacker John Reese got the ball rolling again for SUNY New Paltz, scoring at 9:23 followed shortly after by junior midfielder Aiden Gregory who netted the third of the game for the Hawks. 
 
SUNY New Paltz only let one more through for the quarter, while putting in another three goals themselves. Jones, sophomore midfielder Elias Elcok and Ethan Scully all scored a goal a piece, Reese and Jones collecting an assist each ending the half with the Hawks trimming the difference to just two at 8-6.  
  The Hawks fought hard in the third quarter, scoring three more goals and allowing one for Farmingdale to bring the score to a tie for a shot to win in the fourth quarter. Junior attacker Thomas Armetta added a goal and an assist, and Reese had two goals in that span, finishing the game with three goals and one assist. 
 
"John has had the hot hand the last couple games… he's playing with confidence. He's been great for our offense and his uptick in production has been contagious for our other offensive players," said SUNY New Paltz coach Dwayne Stewart. 
 
The Rams scored early in the fourth to secure a one goal lead. With just 5:38 left Farmingdale started another run of three goals to finish off the game. With four goals in the fourth quarter the score ended 13-9 in favor of the Rams. 
 
"Our shortcoming came from our 22 turnovers," Stewart said. "We have a lot of young talent… as we gain more game experience, we should be able to manage our possessions better. We iron out turnovers, we will begin to see changes."
 
In a statistically close game the turnovers made all the difference. The Hawks ended with 22 turnovers compared to the Rams 15. SUNY New Paltz dominated faceoffs 20-6 with junior faceoff specialist Matt Brignati going 17-for-20 and freshman faceoff specialist Ethan Scully going 3-for-3.
 
The Hawks play again Wednesday at home versus Manhattenville at 4 p.m. Click here for stream and live stats.

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