New Paltz, NY — The State University of New York at New Paltz opened up its 2023 season Wednesday on South Turf Field against SUNY Maritime with the Hawks suffering a 14-10 loss.
 
The game was tight for the majority until a 9-0 run to begin the second half gave the Privateers a comfortable 14-3 cushion with 11 minutes to play. SUNY New Paltz continued to claw though, as the Hawks scored seven unanswered to get within four with less than two minutes remaining, but time winded down on the potential comeback resulting in the home and season-opening defeat.
 
"I think we're a quarter away. We look at this game and even our games last year, we haven't played a full 60 minutes and for us that's a part of it," said first-year Hawks coach Dylan Neisler. "You look at that third quarter and the game gets out of hand. It's a two, three goal game but then you dig yourself a hole that you can't climb out of. For us, we have to find who we are as players, who our leaders are. It can't just come from our captains and that's a part of it too, is understanding who is getting a ground ball, making the right pass, do those things when things aren't going well collectively. But that's the way I look at it. We're a quarter away, 15 minutes away from beating a pretty good team."
 
 
SUNY New Paltz opened up the scoring four minutes into the first quarter, as quick ball movement led to a feed from John Reese to Anthony Senecal resulting in an initial 1-0 lead for the Hawks, which they carried until quarter's end.
 
Maritime's offense started picking up in the second, taking advantage of a man-up opportunity with about 10 minutes left in the period and doubled down a minute later, as SUNY New Paltz turned the ball over on its own man-up situation, leading to a quick transition goal the other way to give the Privateers their first lead of the day. They won the ensuing faceoff and put away another 30 seconds later to create a 3-1 cushion and added on shortly after following a man-up opportunity before Ethan Scully scampered through three defenders and found bottom pipe for his first of the season to trim the deficit 4-2.  
After Maritime put away another with three minutes to go, Ryan Scully found the back of the net off a feed by Thomas Armetta on a man-up opportunity with less than a minute to play to bring the score to 5-3 at halftime.
 
However, the third quarter changed the trajectory of the game, as the Privateers scored five unanswered goals in the 15 minutes and brought a 10-3 advantage into the fourth. They piled on four more in the first five minutes of the fourth, but following a timeout by Neisler, SUNY New Paltz started climbing back in.
 
Armetta fed Reese with just more than 10 minutes left to begin the run, cutting the score to 14-4. The Hawks won back possession and Ethan Scully dished a pass to Aiden Jones who scored his first of the year. A minute later, Senecal found Ryan Scully who put away his second of the day and shortly after, following a defensive stop, Zachary Leung earned his first goal of the season as the long pole defenseman ripped a shot top pipe for the score in transition.
 
With less than four minutes to go, Senecal scored his second of the day, unassisted to trim the deficit to 14-8 with Ryan Scully piling on with a rip off a feed from Deacon Hill. Reese closed out the offense, as Armetta found the 6-foot, 3-inch attacker who worked his way around the creese for the goal.
 
'In settled six on six I think we're really skilled, really talented, our IQ works, and those things showed," Neisler said. "In the first quarter it's 1-1 and their only goal is a man-down goal. In the first half they scored three broken transition goals and a man-down goal. Six on six I think we can shut teams down and I think we played well offensively six on six. When it starts turning into a track meet, I just think right now we don't have the horses to play that game and be successful. So, the building blocks for game two, we need to continue playing our game."
 
Ryan Scully led the offense with three goals on nine shots followed by Senecal and Reese who each had two. Reese ended with a team-high four points, while adding two ground balls. Ryan Steinhart got the nod in goal and totaled 15 saves in 45 minutes played. Nate Lindsey came in and recorded two stops.
 
The Privateers out-shot the Hawks, 44-33 in the game with 16 shots coming in the fourth for SUNY New Paltz.
 
"Whatever style of lacrosse between the two teams playing is going to win the game," Neisler continued. "For us, we need to play settled six on six, eating clock, wear guys down and that fourth quarter really showed that. We found good looks. We found a midfield line that we can rely upon with Ant, Scully and E [Scully}, and maybe that's the line moving forward and build it from there."
 
The Hawks are back in action Tuesday when they travel to face Farmingdale State for a 4 p.m. contest.

Game Highlights (2/22/23)


********************
To stay up to date with everything #NPHawks be sure to follow us on Twitter at @nphawks, Instagram and Facebook at @newpaltzhawks, and subscribe to our Youtube channel, New Paltz Hawks.