Plattsburgh, NY — The State University of New York at New Paltz put an end to a three-game losing skid after coming away with an 11-6 road win over Plattsburgh Tuesday.
 
The two teams were previously scheduled to meet March 23, but was postponed due to weather. In turn, the Hawks (5-7 overall, 1-3 SUNYAC) traveled for an unordinary Tuesday matchup to earn their first SUNYAC win of the season.
 
"It's hard to win in the SUNYAC. I think our league is one of the deepest leagues around and for us to go on the road on a Tuesday, something that we don't normally do and get a win on the road over a scrappy team was great," said SUNY New Paltz coach Dylan Neisler. "We're trying to get back to postseason play and to do so we have to win out the rest of the way like we did last year. We have to go on the road to get back [into the postseason] and that's what we're trying to do."
 
SUNY New Paltz overcame an early 3-2 deficit after the first quarter with a dominate second period, finding the net five times with just 10 shots while blanking the Cardinals to take a 7-3 at the half and never trailed the rest of the way.
 
Aiden Jones added to the lead with an unassisted goal five minutes into the third quarter with Plattsburgh answering two minutes later to trim the deficit, 8-4. Ryan Scully scored off a feed from Jones with three minutes to go to re-establish the five-goal cushion with the fifth-year senior tallying his 100th career point on the play. Scully joined teammates Thomas Armetta and John Reese to reach the 100-point threshold since the program's inception in 2020.  
Nate Urban scored a man-up goal to start the fourth and Armetta capped the day's offense with a goal with just more than two minutes left, scoring on a feed from Ethan Scully to create an 11-5 score with the Cardinals finding the back of the net less than 30 seconds later to finalize the 11-6 outcome.
 
Ethan Scully, Reese and Jones each had three points apiece to lead the team offensively. Zachary Leung totaled a team-most five ground balls with Ryan Steinhart leading SUNY New Paltz defensively with 18 saves in the win.

The Hawks had to utilize guys in different spots to make up for injuries along its roster with sophomore Brandon Ortiz stepping in and playing solid minutes as he took his first reps at defensive midfielder, while also playing on the wing during faceoffs. Neisler was impressed with the way the Massapequa, NY native stepped into the role as he impacted the game and clamped the Cardinals defensively while adding a ground ball on the day.
 
"Guys are playing roles that they are not otherwise used to and for a guy who hasn't play D-middie all year, not even taking one d-middie run in practice, and playing in that rotation consistently all game, he stepped in and did a nice job," Neisler said.
 
SUNY New Paltz is back in action Saturday when it goes back on the road to face SUNY Potsdam at 1 p.m.


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