New Paltz, NY — Saturday brought a highly anticipated matchup at North Turf Field as the State University of New York at New Paltz, riding a perfect 12-0 record, faced visiting Oswego State with each team jostling for playoff positioning as the regular season winds down with three weeks left.
 
The Lakers (8-5 overall, 4-2 SUNYAC) entered the matchup winning two of their last three following a disappointing loss to Brockport, but boasted the best player in the conference in reigning SUNYAC Player of the Year Sela Wiley. However, the Hawks flexed their prowess in conference themselves showing their assentation to the upper tier of the SUNYAC conference, fighting with the Lakers in a last second back and forth battle.
 
Ultimately, Oswego came out victorious as it took advantage of three late cards suffered by SUNY New Paltz and clinched a last second, 13-12 regulation victory.
 
Despite the defeat, the Hawks still stand in the second spot in the league standings, only trailing SUNY Cortland. Oswego improved to 4-2 alongside the Golden Eagles, who SUNY New Paltz already defeated earlier in the year with the Geneseo Knights siting a half game back of the Hawks at 4-1 in the SUNYAC. SUNY New Paltz still needs to play both the Red Dragons and Knights in two of their final three SUNYAC games on the year.
 
SUNY New Paltz trailed early with the Lakers going up 4-1 after the first quarter. With Oswego honed in on the Hawks' top point getters in Kaitlyn Shaw and Morgan Atwater, underclassmen Ava Padilla, Lexi Atwater and Mia Baldinger stepped up and became the offensive catalysts for SUNY New Paltz in the game.

 
 
Padilla showed her growth on the season in her first year with the Hawks, playing aggressive and scoring on a catch and finish inside to tie the game at 1-1 early with each team capitalizing on their opening offensive set of the day.
 
Oswego countered though with three straight goals to end the first quarter with Wiley leading the way scoring two of the three, including a caused turnover in transition on a picked pass and fast break goal to spawn the 3-0 run.
 
Another turnover on the clear allowed the Lakers to take a four-goal advantage, earning a free position attempt on the ensuing offensive possession and scoring to push the difference to 5-1 three minutes into the second quarter.  
SUNY New Paltz started chipping its way back, ignited by a huge play on the ride by Lexi Atwater as the sophomore's pressure in the open field led to a turnover by the Lakers with Baldinger capitalizing, as she took her man one-v-one for the score.
 
Oswego missed on a free position next time down the field and Gabriella Tommaso fired a long pass into midfield for defender Grace Berardi who made an athletic grab, stretching to pull down the long feed in transition. She then pushed and found Baldinger who zipped a pass to Morgan Atwater for the goal, trimming the deficit to 5-3 with more than five minutes to go.
 
Lexi Atwater forced another turnover on the ride with Baldinger then earning a free position on a drive inside on the other side of the field. She smartly found an open Padilla cutting inside instead of taking an attempt from the hash and the score got the Hawks within one with two minutes remaining.

Both teams traded goals in the final two minutes of the first half, as Lexi Atwater scored an unassisted goal to create a 6-5 game entering the break.
 
The Brighton, NY native then nearly tied the game to open the second half, but Lakers goalie Sarah Kamide made a nice stop on the play and got the ball out of her stick quickly resulting in a semi transition for Oswego, leading to a free position attempt and goal to re-establish a two-goal cushion. Lexi Atwater stayed aggressive though, and after a draw control win by Shaw earned center hash after getting hit inside. She drove in and finished to cut the score to 7-6.
 
Oswego regained a three-goal lead at 9-6 with nine minutes left in the period, but Lexi Atwater scored a man-up goal with six minutes to go after the Lakers were hit with a yellow card after a check to the head on Atwater. They were caught offsides shortly after, resulting in a one-minute green card and this time Shaw was the benefactor, finishing on a feed from Morgan Atwater for the man-up goal, cutting the score to 9-8 with about five minutes remaining in the third.  
Another yellow card by Oswego resulted in another man-up goal, this time Allison Beattie got in on the action as the freshman cut, caught and finished inside off a pass from Baldinger for the goal, which shifted momentum toward the Hawks as their bench got fired up seeing the first year come through with the clutch score.
 
The Lakers came up with the ensuing draw control, but Baldinger won possession back on a good back check, resulting in a goal from Morgan Atwater to give SUNY New Paltz its first lead of the game with less than a minute left in the period. Baldinger then continued her involvement in the offense, as she assisted Lexi Atwater before quarter's end to establish an 11-9 lead entering the final 15 minutes of play.
 
Wiley zipped a feed to teammate Isabella Lembo within the first 60 seconds of the fourth to create a one-goal game, but Padilla stepped up and answered for the Hawks. She rolled the crease and lost her defender on a rocker dodge, but Kamide was there to make the stop on the point-blank shot. Padilla, with the heads-up play, stuck with the loose ball and immediately found Lexi Atwater for the quick-stick goal to push SUNY New Paltz ahead, 12-10.  
 
Oswego responded for a quick catch and finish on the other end to get within one once again. A missed free position attempt by the Hawks allowed the Lakers to clear, but heavy pressure from Lexi Atwater and Mia Baldinger on a double near the sideline forced a turnover and Hawks coach Randy Vite immediately called a timeout.
 
SUNY New Paltz then stayed patient, able to take advantage of three separate 60-second resets, the last on a yellow card given to the Lakers on a foul inside on Baldinger resulting in another score from Lexi Atwater with Padilla assisting on the play to extend the lead to 13-11 with about seven minutes left.
 
The offense stalled there, however, for the Hawks who struggled clearing the ball. A turnover in transition led to a free position goal with five minutes to go, then a yellow card on Morgan Woolley on an attempted back check allowed Oswego a man-up opportunity. Tommaso came up huge with the stop on the ensuing free position, but Francesca Corozzo was then given a yellow which handed the Lakers a two-man advantage. Wiley made sure to capitalize as she tied the game at 13-apeice with about a minute left.
 
Oswego came up with the ensuing draw control and called a timeout to set up a play with about 20 seconds left. The Lakers put the ball in the stick of Wiley, who dodged inside and earned a free position. She took the opportunity and fired a shot past Tommaso for the game-winning goal with eight seconds left all but sealing the win and handing SUNY New Paltz its first loss of the year.
 
Lexi Atwater led all scorers with six goals on 10 shots, adding a team-leading three ground balls with two caused turnovers and four draw controls. Baldinger followed with one goal and a team-leading four assists with three caused turnovers and two draws. Padilla finished with two goals and two assists for four points. Morgan Atwater tallied two goals and an assist, while Shaw added a goal, a ground ball, a caused turnover and a team-leading seven draw controls. Tommaso finished with five stops in cage.
 
SUNY New Paltz finishes its regular season with three SUNYAC games, two coming next week against perennial powers SUNY Cortland and SUNY Geneseo both on the road. The Hawks face the Red Dragons Wednesday at 4 p.m. before taking on the Knights Saturday at 11 a.m.
 

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