New Paltz, NY — The State University of New York New Paltz hosted perennial power SUNY Cortland, currently ranked at No. 38 in the country in the latest NPI poll, on North Turf Field Saturday and succumbed to a 24-6 loss.
 
Freshman goalie Jacob Kenny (17 saves) made some nice stops as the Hawks defense hung in as the Red Dragons dominated at the faceoff X (27-7), holding the ball for the majority of the game. SUNY New Paltz was efficient when it did run through its offensive set as 17 of its 24 shots were on target.
 
Finn Smith broke up a 6-0 run by Cortland, scoring man-up on the first power play of the game for the Hawks to trim the difference to five going into the second quarter. Smith scored the team's second goal midway through the second period, stemmed off a caused turnover by freshman defensive midfielder Sam Wilbert.
 
Killian Yombor got in on the action four minutes later, sniping the corner on a drive left to cut into the Red Dragons' double-digit cushion. Cortland answered however on the ensuing faceoff, as Sean Kavanagh brought his team a 13-3 lead at the break.
 
Blake Hayden found the back of the net thanks to a nice stop by Kenny and a quick transition up the field with the freshman scoring on the break to bring the score to 14-4 in the opening minutes of the second half. The Red Dragons started rolling, however, rattling off five-straight before Hayden broke up the stretch, scoring off a pass from Nick Darcangelo.
 
 
Darcangelo capped the offense for SUNY New Paltz on a nice feed by Blake Lyons, as the sophomore dodged past a defender to draw a slide before dishing to an open Darcangelo for the score four minutes into the fourth quarter.
 
The offense was spread for the Hawks with five different players totaling two points. Long pole defenseman Drew Hulede paced the hosts defensively, totaling a team-high four ground balls with one caused turnover. Fellow defenseman Aidan Harrington followed, recording two ground balls and a caused turnover.
 
Eric Waldron and Zach Novak each saw time in cage, combining for three saves in about 15 minutes of action.
 
SUNY New Paltz has two games left on its schedule starting with Oswego Wednesday on the road before returning to North Turf Field Saturday to host Morrisville at 1 p.m. on Senior Day.
 

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