New Paltz, NY – The State University of New York at New Paltz men's lacrosse team fell to The College at Brockport in their first SUNYAC matchup of the season Saturday, 15-5.
 
The Golden Eagles started out scoring for the game just more than two minutes into the first quarter. The Hawks battled with some attacking opportunities for about five minutes before evening the score, 1-1. Junior midfielder Aidan Gregory found sophomore attacker John Reese cutting for the ball, Reese rounded the crease and shot low past Brockport keeper John Felice. After two more goals for the Golden Eagles, freshman midfielder Anthony Senecal put in the second of the game for the Hawks with a minute and 14 seconds left in the quarter. Senecal's goal brought the score to a close 3-2 at Brockport's advantage. 
 
"In the first quarter, I think we had our legs behind us and we had our flight defenders [who] were able to run with the athletic offensive players," said SUNY New Paltz coach Dwayne Stewart. "It's just as the game went on, we kind of lost our endurance and they kind of just stayed in cruise control. And I think that's where we kind of lost the game. We just didn't have the legs to run with them for four quarters." 
 
The Golden Eagles opened up the scoring for the second quarter just about two minutes in. SUNY New Paltz's sophomore midfielder Ryan Kaelin put one in a little over a minute later making a move past the defense with a hard shot past Felice. Kaelin's goal was the only of the quarter for the Hawks. Brockport's attack kept shooting with the game high of 19 shots that second quarter, with five goals piling on before the half came to a close with the Golden Eagles up 8-3.

 
 
"In the second half, we just didn't possess the ball," Stewart said. "We kept on turning the ball over in the middle of the field and giving them extra possessions. So our offense wasn't stifled by their defense. We just never gained possession of a ball."
 
The Hawks began the second half hungry, scoring two unanswered goals. Reese put away his second and final of the game taking advantage of a dropped ball and an open cage due to the recovering goalie. Junior attacker Thomas Armetta scored roughly seven minutes later, closing out goals for SUNY New Paltz.  
After Armetta's goal late in the third the Golden Eagles went on to score seven unanswered goals, six of which were in the fourth quarter. Sophomore goalie Ryan Steinhart entered the game late in the second quarter, from then on he endured 41 of Brockports 64 shots and made 16 saves, while allowing eight goals. 
 
"[Steinhart's] been seeing the ball really well this entire year," said Stewart. "Really good shots for an offense that more times than not has a good chance of connecting with the back of the cage. He's picking them out of the air. He's very impressive… Nate played a strong first half, but they got up a lot of shots in the first half so we can't expect them to save everything. Both goalies have been good all year."
 
The Hawks play again next Saturday on the South Turf Field for another SUNYAC matchup against SUNY Geneseo at 1 p.m. 
 
"We need to get healthy. We got some guys that are banged up even from previous games. The other thing that we definitely need to continue to show up is our offense so we can get some more production from them in the middle of the field," Stewart said. "We got to be able to ride and clear [effectively]. We didn't do that as well as we should have and that showed on the scoreboard."

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