Union, NJ — A 7-0 run led to an unfortunate 22-8 rout for the State University of New York New Paltz Saturday in its season opener as it fell to hosting Kean.

The Hawks (0-1 overall) started the game off strong, getting up 3-1 within the first six minutes, but the Cougars dominated possession as they countered with seven unanswered goals that bled into the second period with SUNY New Paltz unable to climb out of the deep hole.

Zach Novak came up with his first collegiate save after Kean won the opening faceoff. The Hawks cleared and immediately capitalized as James Flanagan fed Anthony Sencal for the score. The Cougars knotted up the score off the ensuing faceoff, but SUNY New Paltz's defense held firm on back-to-back possessions with the momentum lingering into the offensive end resulting in goals.

Following a good clear, Ethan Scully quickly scored on the other end to put the Hawks up by one with 10 minutes still to go in the period. Ryan O'Hara won the next faceoff, as Luke Walters came from the wing to scoop up the ground ball to allow SUNY New Paltz to run some 6-on-6 offense. Flanagan's first attempt went wide, but the Hawks kept possession with Aiden Duran holding the ball in his stick behind the cage at X. The Juniata transfer used his quickness to beat his defender around the crease and laser a shot far pipe for his first goal as a Hawk while pushing his team ahead, 3-1.

 The lead diminished within the next two minutes, as the Cougars scored two goals off faceoff wins to tie the score at 3-3. Kean's Dylan Johnson officially gave the hosts control, splitting a double and finishing off stick-side to bring the advantage to 4-3. The score remained until the end of the quarter, but a late penalty to end the period gave the Cougars a man-up advantage to start the second. The hosts capitalized and continued building on their run and scored four more to go up, 9-3 until Flanagan put an end to the 8-0 stretch with his first of the game following a faceoff violation by Kean.
 

However, the score didn't slow the Cougars momentum as they rattled off two more before halftime to take a comfortable, 11-4 lead. Senecal finally broke up another unanswered stretch with his second of the afternoon, finishing on a feed by Flanagan with eight minutes left in the third to cut into the score, 14-5. Flanagan found Senecal once again four minutes later before Blake Lyons netted his first collegiate goal to end the quarter to put a dent into a 19-7 deficit.
The Hawks found the back of the net one last time with about four minutes left in the fourth, as Senecal assisted Flanagan to finalize the 22-8 outcome.

"Obviously, nobody wants to lose 22-8, but for us I think what's more valuable than the score is [getting experience]," said SUNY New Paltz coach Dylan Neisler. "We threw our young players in the deep end right away. I think [Johnson] and [Nick Thorne] from Kean are very good players and we had two freshmen guard them and at times they looked like freshmen out there… We played as many of our young guys as we could. We played seven players on defense, and they played a lot."

The Cougars out-shot the Hawks, 60-28, including 28-13 in the second half alone. Kean also won the turnover battle, 20-17 and picked up more ground balls, 47-25 with 21 faceoff wins to SUNY New Paltz's 10.

Flanagan and Senecal led the Hawks with five and four points, respectively. Novak and Eric Waldron split time in goal, finishing with nine and eight saves, respectively.
 

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