Newburgh, NY — The State University of New York New Paltz won its first game of the season Wednesday, collecting an 11-6 victory on the road over Mount Saint Mary's College.
 
Freshman midfielder Blake Lyons led the way as he finished with a career-high three points off three goals, as he took 10 shots, seven of which on goal while adding a ground ball and a caused turnover. Anthony Senecal also added a game-high three goals on six shots, while adding three ground balls. Freshman attacker Michael Plante registered two scores on six shots, also tallying three ground balls, while Aiden Duran, Nick Darcangelo and Sean Hoolan all added goals as well, the latter of which registered his first of his career.
 
Lyons got the offense started with the game's first goal with about 11 minutes left in the first, stemming off a Knights turnover. Senecal added on five minutes later, driving and finishing to double his team's lead. Duran then capped the period for the Hawks, answering a MSMC goal with his second of the year.
 
The Knights opened up the second with a goal, but Senecal scored back-to-back to bring the lead to 5-2. Lyons ended the half with his second of the day with about 30 seconds remaining.
 
MSMC again started the quarter with a goal, but Lyons netted his third to re-create the four-goal cushion. The hosts capitalized off a Hawks turnover midway through the period, resulting in a goal, but SUNY New Paltz scored two unanswered with a minute left to create a five-goal difference. However, with seconds remaining, the Knights made a stop on a save on one end, quickly cleared and netted another to cut the score, 9-5 entering the fourth.  
The closest the Knights got in the fourth was within four with nine minutes left in the game, but Hoolan finished on an assist by Luke Walters to re-up the five-point cushion and the Hawks held on from there.
 
Despite the fairly tight score, SUNY New Paltz dominated every statistical category, but just had trouble finding the back of the cage. The Hawks tallied 49 shots, while MSMC had 22, while also winning the turnover battle (21-27), garnering more ground balls (38-27) and faceoff wins (14-7).
 
Zach Novak earned his first career save for SUNY New Paltz, totaling seven saves in 45 minutes with Eric Waldron coming in the fourth and finishing with three stops. The Knights' Kenny Leen had a day in goal, totaling 21 saves in the loss.
 
The Hawks are back in action Saturday, facing Marywood University on the road at 1 p.m.

 
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