This past weekend, the men’s soccer team lost two State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) home matches against Brockport on Friday Sept. 29 by a final score of 3-2 and fell to Geneseo on Saturday Sept. 30 by a final score of 2-0. This dropped the Hawks overall record to 4-7.
In both matches, the Hawks gave up early goals as second and third-year midfielders Jason Hayes and Quintin Volpe scored within the first 11 minutes of the game for Brockport. In the match against Geneseo, third-year Greg Baumstein opened the scoring in the fifth minute to give the Knights a lead they would not relinquish.
“This past weekend, we came out flat in the beginning of both games,” head coach Kyle Clancy said. “The early goals scored against us were easily preventable, we have to do a better job of playing complete games.”
The two goals the Hawks recorded this weekend were scored in the match against Brockport by first-year midfielder Kevin Doorley, who is currently is the team leader in points with 11. The other goal was scored by third-year defender Sebastian Gordon-Somers-Archer. Doorley said that the team has to focus on the basics and practicing better.
“We can’t focus too far into the future,” Doorley said. “We just have to focus on getting better everyday in practice before we worry about the next game.”
Even with being the team’s leading point scorer as a first-year player, Doorley hasn’t thought about it too much given the team’s recent losing streak.
“I’m more concerned about winning games than my personal statistics at this point in the season,” Doorley said.
Doorley also led the team with two shots on goal against Brockport. Fourth-year goalkeeper John Guzzo started both games this past weekend for the Hawks, recording two saves against Brockport and four saves against Geneseo respectively.
The Hawks have five remaining matches in the regular season, all of which are SUNYAC conference play. Clancy discussed how the team has been battling in practice during all week even with the losing streak.
“The players have been competing hard in practice with one on one battles,” Clancy said. “Some guys who have been working hard recently that have not received a good amount of playing time will be getting more action for the rest of the season.”
For this upcoming weekend, the Hawks will play home games against Potsdam and Plattsburgh, two teams the Hawks tied against last season. Clancy is looking forward to these conference matches.
“Both Potsdam and Plattsburgh are very good teams, it’s going to be a battle in both games,” Clancy said. “I think we’ll be fine for these games if we defend better, and get more pressure and chances on the opposition.”
After the matches against Potsdam and Plattsburgh, the Hawks will hit the road and play away matches to end the regular season against Oneonta on Oct. 14, Fredonia on Oct. 20 and Buffalo State on Oct. 21.