Madison, NJ — The State University of New York at New Paltz earned its first win of the season Sunday to conclude the Drew/FDU-Florham Tournament with a 2-0 victory over the Devils.
 
The Hawks (1-1-1 overall) overcame a tough defeat Saturday against hosting Drew with a dominating performance over FDU-Florham. They out-shot the opposite side, 22-3 including 17-2 in shots on goal with 15 shots coming in the second half alone. They kept Devils keeper Tiernan Grey busy, as he finished with 15 stops on the afternoon.
 
"It was a great response today," said SUNY New Paltz coach Kyle Clancy. "We played with energy and executed well right from the start and were much more creative in the final third. The guys were hungry to compete and bounce back from a tough loss and they accomplished that very well today."
 
The Hawks had opportunities on net from the opening whistle with Joseph DiPreta getting off a shot in the eighth minute of the match and Papis Konate putting the first on Grey five minutes later. Despite the offensive onslaught, SUNY New Paltz didn't take the initial lead until the 55th minute with Gabriel Cruz following an initial shot by Konate to push his team ahead.
 
The score was soon doubled as Philip Varner found the bottom right corner of goal to extend the Hawks advantage to 2-0 in the 57th minute. They continued to control the game and added four more shots and earned three corners in the final 20 minutes, nearly adding a few insurance goals onto their lead. "I do think we should have put a few more away," Clancy said. "Being in control of the game like we were and getting in behind as many times as we did, you'd like to see a few more goals, but we will continue to work on our finishing and from what I saw today we are headed in the right direction."
 
SUNY New Paltz's defense did its job the rest of the way and notched its second clean sheet of the season with sophomore goalie Christian Micheli registering two saves in the win.
 
Micheli, Owen McGarrity and Tim Kane each played a full 90 minutes to pace the Hawks, Thomas O'Neill led the team with six shots, four on target, in 54 minutes of action. Varner and Konate followed with four shots apiece.
 
"I was most proud of the way we competed in some pretty tough heat with our third goal in four days," Clancy said. "We showed the mentality we have and when we work this hard collectively, we are a tough team to beat."
 
SUNY New Paltz is on the road for its next two matchups facing United States Merchant Marine Academy at 5 p.m. Wednesday before taking on NYU Saturday at 12 p.m.

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