New Paltz, NY — The State University of New York at New Paltz earned its third-straight victory Wednesday on South Turf Field, defeating the visiting Broncos from SUNY Delhi, 13-6.
 
The Hawks improved to 3-3 overall on the year and stayed perfect at home at 2-0, as they look ahead with two more home contests before they enter SUNYAC play next week.
 
"We were taking it back to last year when we had lost our first three and then went on a three-game win streak, so we were trying to do that again and bring momentum," said SUNY New Paltz senior attackman John Reese. "Now, we'll bring that to Saturday when play Manhattanville."
 
Reese led the offense with five goals on the day, his first coming midway through the first quarter after the Hawks were hit with a slashing penalty on Deacon Hill, who seemingly had a clean hit in the midfield on the ride. After a shot wide by the Broncos, SUNY New Paltz cleared the ball with Ethan Scully finding Reese on the man-down goal, which pushed SUNY New Paltz ahead, 2-1 and they never trailed the rest of the way.
 
Scully had his best game of the season as well, also delivering five points on the day with three goals and two assists. His first tied the score at 1-1 after Delhi took the initial lead, scoring unassisted at the eight-minute mark of the first.
 
"We weren't happy we gave up the first one, but moral never died," Reese said. "We came out, scored the next one and got the momentum back and then after that we scored a couple straight, so that's what we need to do, and we did it."
 
Scully pushed the lead to 3-1 after finishing off a feed from James Flanagan on the power play.
 
 
SUNY New Paltz established a five-goal cushion in the second quarter following three unanswered from Aiden Jones, Thomas Armetta and Colin Cleary. The latter was a highlight from the second-year midfielder, who went coast-to-coast, picking up the ground ball off a good check by freshman LSM Aidan Harrington, and scoring his third of the year.
 
Overall, the Hawks defense held up against a fast-paced Broncos team, as they forced 16 turnovers — 14 caused, and only gave up 35 shots with 34 ground balls totaled on the day, but the goals they did give up were self-inflicted broken plays that Delhi capitalized on.  
The Broncos cut into the deficit with eight minutes left in the period after following up with the rebound off an initial save by SUNY New Paltz's Ryan Steinhart in front of cage, placing in their second of the game. Scully immediately answered though, scoring off a dish from Thomas Armetta from X one minute later.

However, Delhi continued capitalizing on mistakes and trimmed the difference to three by halftime. The Hawks shot early in their shot clock and the Broncos got out and ran for a fast-break goal with two minutes to go. After winning the ensuing faceoff they fired back-to-back shots at Steinhart with the senior making the stop. However, SUNY New Paltz couldn't clear as an immediate turnover led to a ground ball pickup and score with less than a minute remaining to cut the score to 7-4 at the break.
 
"We had talked about that they kind of play a chaotic style with a lot of loose balls picked up, a lot of fastbreaks, a fast-paced game and our goal was to try and slow them down," Reese said. "When we did that then we were scoring and were successful, but when it was an up-and-down game that's when they would put some in the net. Once we were able to tame that then we ran away with the score."
 
Reese immediately answered at the start of the second half for the Hawks, finishing off a pass from James Flanagan. Delhi scored off another rebound on a save from Steinhart to bring the score to 8-5, but Reese answered about two minutes later, this time off a Ryan Scully assist. Less than a minute later, Ryan Kaelin picked up a ground ball for SUNY New Paltz off a blocked shot attempt, cleared the other way and Flanagan then took advantage with a score off an assist from Armetta to boost the lead to 10-5 with five minutes to go.
 
The Broncos scored to start the fourth quarter, but SUNY New Paltz opened up the game with back-to-back goals from Flanagan and Reese with the latter capitalizing off a faceoff win from Quinn Tucker and ground ball pickup from Cleary to help put the game away, as the Hawks ate clock to bleed the game out. Reese scored his fifth and final from Anthony Senecal with less than four minutes left to cap the offensive output.
 
"Shoutout to my attackmen, Tom and Flanny they assisted me on a bunch of goals so that was great," Reese said. "Middies were doing their job dodging and finding the open looks so when it got to me in the middle, I just made sure I put it in the net and when they had their chances, they did it too."
 
Flanagan also finished with five points, scoring two and assisting on three with one ground ball. Armetta had a goal and two assists with a ground ball pickup. Defensemen Zachary Leung had a team-high five ground balls with Owen Craker and Rafael Fillyaw following with four apiece with the two also totaling a game-high four caused turnovers each. Steinhart made 13 saves in the win.
 
SUNY New Paltz hopes to extend its winning streak as it returns to South Turf Field Saturday to host Manhattanville College at 11 a.m.

Post-Game Interview Featuring John Reese



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