The 2023 season marks year four for the State University of New York at New Paltz men's lacrosse program.
The Hawks entrance into Division III lacrosse has been a rocky one — years one and two shortened by COVID, with 2022 being the first full season for the newest of SUNY New Paltz's men's teams, while 2023 marks a changing of the guard, with first year coach Dylan Neisler assuming the reins of the program.
Neisler, who was the assistant coach under inaugural coach Dwayne Stewart during the program's inception in the fall of 2019, inherits a team that has a three-year record of 5-20 overall and a 1-12 SUNYAC, and is heavy with seniors and juniors. Five sophomores and five freshmen round out the 28-man squad.
Leading SUNY New Paltz are four-year veterans, tri-captains
Zach Schmidt (Levittown, NY),
Aidan Gregory (Ballston Spa, NY) and
Thomas Armetta (West Islip, NY).
The Hawks look to improve upon their 2022 performance, which showed their collegiate inexperience. They scored 118 goals against 179 for their opponents, with a 498-711 shot differential on the year. Ground balls saw them with 414 against 473; they won 167 of 342 faceoffs and had a clearance percentage of .729 versus 835 for opponents. Defensively, SUNY New Paltz had 102 caused turnovers against 164 for their foes.
Gallery: (2-13-2023) Men's Lacrosse Preseason 2023
"Last year was our first real year and then we kind of weren't as mature as we are now — everyone is stepping up from a leadership standpoint from the seniors and juniors showing the freshman the new ropes and everything like that," said Hawks junior defenseman
Rafael Fillyaw. "A lot more maturity from both the seniors and juniors, everyone is stepping up into leadership roles. You know, we went through the first semester without a coach, so we saw a lot of the guys taking on the almost the coaching role like telling the guys to go to class and making sure everyone still working out and keeping the sticks in their hand and really making sure that we're ready to go when the season rolls around."
SUNY New Paltz will feature an experienced lineup across the board on attack. Leading scorer, junior attacker
John Reese (Nesconset, NY) with 30 goals and 12 assists in 2022 returns, as does Armetta (West Islip, NY) with 21 goals and 14 assists. Sophomore attacker
James Flanagan (New City, NY) had an impressive first year, scoring 23 goals with 11 assists. Returning after a year's absence is
Ryan Scully (Bay Shore, NY). The senior attackman scored the Hawks' first ever goal in 2020, was named SUNY New Paltz's first ever SUNYAC Male Lacrosse Athlete of the Week in 2020 and led the program in scoring in 2020 and 2021.
Midfield for the Hawks features number four and five scorers from a year ago, in sophomore
Anthony Senecal (Patchogue, NY) and senior
Aidan Gregory (Ballston Spa, NY) who hit the net for 11 goals, nine assists and eight goals, 10 assists respectively. Seniors Schmidt,
Patrick Harnaga (White Plains, NY), and
Aiden Jones (Averill Park, NY),
Deacon Hill (Elbridge, NY) saw considerable action, as did junior
Ryan Kaelin (Shoreham, NY),
Matt Brignati (East Northport, NY) and sophomore
Ethan Scully (Bay Shore, NY). Brignati and Scully will also handle face off opportunities. Senior
Mason Pontrelli (Lynbrook, NY) adds experience and depth for the Hawks. Vying for playing time will be four first year players:
Sean Cassidy (Port Washington, NY),
Colin Cleary (Centereach, NY),
Brandon Ortiz (Massapequa, NY) and high school teammate
Quinn Tucker (Massapequa, NY). Tucker can also play as a face off specialist.
"Last year being our first full year of lacrosse, we got our first SUNYAC win last year, and this year we have our sights on the playoffs you know, that first win in the SUNYAC was a big hurdle for us to get over and we are looking forward to dominating the SUNYAC this year," Senecal said. "So Neisler coming in, he specifically changed our play-style and our flow. Last year we played a more Long Island style lacrosse and this year, [Neisler] is from Detroit so he's got a more Detroit style of lacrosse coming in, it's a lot of fun learning a new style of the game."
SUNY New Paltz's defense is headed by juniors
Zachary Leung (Farmingdale, NY) and
Tim Russell (Wantagh, NY) who started and played in all 14 games in 2022. Joining them are senior
Michael Devoe (Bethlehem, NY), Fillyaw (Norwalk, CT), long stick midfielder/defender sophomore
Kevin Rivera (Putnam Valley, NY) and sophomore
Lars Fosstveit (Cornwall, NY). Seeking playing time will be first year defender Owen Cracker (Lindenhurst, NY).
Minding the net will be two seasoned goalies, senior
Nate Lindsey (Fulton, NY) and junior
Ryan Steinhart (Hauppauge, NY). Steinhart compiled 519.51 minutes played last season, with a 12.35 goals-against-average and a .618 save percentage. Lindsey saw 310.36 minutes of action with a 13.53 goals-against-average and a .517 save percentage.
SUNY New Paltz saw its first live action last Saturday, heading to Sage College for a scrimmage against the Gators and saw some positives on both sides of the ball as they prepare for their home opener Feb. 22.
"We were able to clear very well and that's something we struggled with last year and so the fact that we were so successful in both games on the clear was really really exciting and something that we're still working on and we are hoping to get a couple goals off of that," Fillyaw said.
"At our scrimmage on Saturday I saw what our future team would look like," Senecal added. "Bringing in Coach Neisler, a totally different system from what we ran last year, really looking forward to what we can do together in our first game coming up."
The Hawks open their 2023 campaign with eight non-conference games, five at home, including the season and home opener against the Privateers of the SUNY Maritime College, a team which defeated New Paltz 13-4 a year ago in the Bronx.
SUNY New Paltz begins its seven game SUNYAC schedule at home on March 25 against the Cardinals of Plattsburgh State. Last season the Hawks lost a close 14-10 matchup at Plattsburgh. Overall, the Hawks hope to win those tight contests they had been on the other end of last season, as six of their losses were within four goals or less including three one-goal losses against St. Joseph's-Long Island, Mount Saint Mary College and Manhattanville.
"A lot of those games that we lost last year were one-goal games and we see a lot of those matchups coming into this year and we really want to win those one-goal games by a lot more and of course we do want to try and make it to the SUNYAC playoffs this year," Fillyaw said. "We feel like we have a really good chance."
The Hawks are set to open up their 2023 season Wednesday on South Turf Field at 3 p.m. against SUNY Maritime.
Season Preview featuring Rafael Fillyaw & Anthony Senecal
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