New Paltz, NY — The State University of New York at New Paltz extended its winning streak to five games Wednesday after rolling to a 17-5 win over visiting St. Joseph's-Long Island.
 
The Hawks improved to 5-3 overall with the win with the Golden Eagles dropping to 0-2. SUNY New Paltz established control from the opening seconds, as Matt Brignati won the first faceoff, which turned into an Aiden Jones goal 10 seconds into the game. Goals by Jones and Thomas Armetta pushed the lead to 3-0 three minutes in before St. Joseph's-LI got on the board at the 10-minute mark off a second chance opportunity with Ryan Steinhart (four saves) making the initial stop but the Golden Eagles were there to pick up the loose ball resulting in the score.
 
SUNY New Paltz immediately responded though, as Brignati won the ensuing faceoff with Tim Russell picking up the ground ball and getting it down field to Ethan Scully who fed Armetta for the goal, which galvanized a 5-0 run to end the quarter to put the Hawks up, 8-1.
 
"It was a great team win. A lot of guys got their own and the defense played well, offense played well and we came out here, we know our expectations that we set ourselves so we were just holding ourselves accountable in that area," Armetta said. "Games like this is a good time for us to get through our stuff and really practice on our clearing, our offense, defense and once we get those sharpened, then it's going to elevate us to the next level forward."
 
 
The Hawks extended the lead to 11-1 at the half as Jones scored his 17th of the season with less than a minute left to establish his team a 10-goal cushion.
 
The Golden Eagles found the back of the net again with three minutes left in the third quarter to trim the score, 12-2 and then followed with two more goals in the final minute of the period to cut the deficit to eight entering the fourth. SUNY New Paltz responded to open up the final 15 minutes as Scully netted his seventh of the season before Deacon Hill added another less than a minute later following a faceoff win by Brignati. Ethan Scully then closed out a career-day, tallying his sixth assist of the game to his brother, Ryan Scully, upping the Hawks lead to 15-4 with 10 minutes to go. Patrick Harnaga and Jones closed out with two more scores, solidifying the win.
"I think we slept walked through the game. St. Joe's had 13 guys and I give them an immense amount of credit to that staff, those coaches and players, because they have to play, and they played hard that whole time. Their poles were really good," said Hawks coach Dylan Neisler. "It's hard to stay up, especially when we had a win against Plattsburgh that we were really excited about and run into a game like this. Did we play to our standard? No, but I'm happy that we gave St. Joe's the respect and played the game the right way."
 
SUNY New Paltz out-shot St. Joseph's-LI, 66-21, won the turnover battle, 15-30, had more ground balls, 52-17 and faceoff wins, 15-10, while being near perfect on clears going 20-for-21 in a dominant outing.
 
Ethan Scully finished with seven points, tied for third-most ever by a Hawk, while setting the program single-game assist record with six helpers and a goal to lead the way offensively.
 
"It's always cool to see a record broken and see different guys do it and not the same guy breaking their own records," Neisler said. "It's cool to see those things balance out, but to be completely honest those records will be broken two years from now or three years from now when we take the steps we need to take over time, but it is cool. Like for a guy like E who took a lot of faceoffs last year and is now a first line O-middie and for him to basically become a quarterback for us and pass the ball the way he does, it's special and it's exciting to see that stuff happen."
 
Jones tied Scully in points with seven, scoring a career-high six, second most in single-game program history, while adding two ground balls and two caused turnovers. Armetta also finished with seven points, totaling five goals and two assists with three ground balls and two caused turnovers. Russell finished with a career-high nine ground balls, tied for second-most in program history, while adding three caused turnovers. Brignati added six ground balls and went 10-for-14 in faceoff opportunities, while Quinn Tucker went 5-for-11 with three ground balls.
 
SUNY New Paltz will put its winning streak to the test as it travels to SUNY Geneseo for a 1 p.m. game against arguably the best team in the conference. The Knights defeated the Hawks last year in the first ever meeting, 15-4.
 
"I think we can improve in a lot of areas," Neisler said. "I think Geneseo is going to be a team that is really going to test us. They're athletic. They're fast. They do a really nice job of driving the ball, clearing and riding. I'm excited to see what our group looks like. We've taken a lot of steps over the last month or two. It will be nice to see just how many steps we've taken, because they're really good. It's a nice litmus test to see how far we've come and how far we still need to go."

Post-Game Featuring Thomas Armetta


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