The boys in blue and orange suffered their first SUNYAC loss of the season against Plattsburgh on Monday, losing 13-3.
The Cardinals’ seven unanswered goals in the first and second quarters drove a nail through the Hawks’ hopes of a victory.
“We had a big issue with possessing the ball on offense and not running our plays correctly at all,” first-year midfielder Ryan Kaelin said. “Another big issue was our clearing attempts and not being able to get the ball back on the offensive side.”
The game was originally scheduled as one of two back-to-back games between the two rivals. However, their first game slated for Friday was postponed to April 23.
The Cardinals struck first, as second-year attacker Michael Swift put his team on the board. Thirty seconds later, fourth-year midfielder Stephen Kane tallied another one for the boys in red and white. Yet New Paltz answered nearly five minutes later; Kaelin netted the Hawks’ first goal of the game with an assist by second-year midfielder Aidan Gregory. Just as Plattsburgh did, New Paltz scored another goal in quick succession, this time from first-year attacker John Reese, unassisted.
Unfortunately, Plattsburgh’s offensive floodgates opened after Reese’s goal. Kane netted his second goal of the game, capitalizing on a ground ball pickup by second-year midfielder Julian Pigliavento.
New Paltz took a timeout following the goal. When play resumed, a turnover from third-year midfielder Jozef Harvan led to another Plattsburgh goal from second-year attacker Gus Rugg with some help from third-year attacker Dilon Smith. The home team’s 4-2 advantage was held through the end of the quarter. New Paltz came out of the gates at the start of the second strong, putting seven shots on Plattsburgh’s third-year goalie Christian Bassi in the first half.
However, New Paltz bore no fruits for their labor. Plattsburgh put three balls into the net in the quarter, with goals from Kane, fourth-year attacker Connor Wolff and Smith, giving the home team a 7-2 lead.
The third quarter began with a Wolff goal, extending Plattsburgh’s lead to 8-2. The Hawks committed three turnovers following the goal, which led to another Cardinal tally from first-year attacker Brian Pohoreckyj. After a few more Hawk turnovers, Kaelin managed his second goal of the game, narrowing the Hawks deficit to six.
Yet that was all she wrote for New Paltz as Plattsburgh scored four more goals in the last quarter, sealing the deal.
When asked what the team needed to work on for their next games, Kaelin was succinct.
“Running the plays on offense that we do in practice every single day,” Kaelin said.
Shots were in Plattsburgh’s favor, 51 to 37. With the main downside of the Hawks game being turnovers, their opponents forced 23 of them compared to the Hawks 10.
“Our mentality is to fix our mistakes from last week and just be better as a team overall because we are all confident we can go to our next game and win if we do what we need to do,” Kaelin said.
The Hawks are back in action on Friday in a road game against the SUNY Potsdam Bears at 4:00 p.m.
