After a nonconference home win against King’s College on Sept.16, the men’s soccer played in its first State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) matches of the season this past weekend, as they lost 1-0 away contests to both SUNY Oswego and SUNY Cortland to drop their overall record to 4-5.
In the Friday, Sept. 22 match against Oswego, the Hawks outshot the Lakers 17-8, but the difference in the game was a Lakers goal by third-year forward Hassan Musa in the 59th minute. Despite the loss, Hawks head coach Kyle Clancy thought the team played a good game.
“We came out flat for the first half of the game. But once the second half came around, we started playing well and getting great chances,” Clancy said. “We gave up one good chance in the second half and they capitalized on it with a goal.”
One of the three shots on net for the Hawks against Oswego was recorded by first-year midfielder Kevin Doorley, who currently leads the team in points this season with eight. He knew the team had to improve from their sluggish first half performance.
“Coach really got on us as a team for our first half performance,” Doorley said. “We knew we had to have a better performance in the second half if we wanted to win.”
In the Saturday Sept. 23 match against Cortland, the difference in the tightly contested match was a late goal at the 88th minute by Red Dragons third-year midfielder Jake Keller. The Red Dragons outshot the Hawks by a 12-9 margin as Hawks fourth-year goalkeeper John Guzzo made three saves in the contest. Clancy felt the team played a good game against Cortland.
“The team did a good job of refocusing after the Oswego loss,” Clancy said. “We played a great game against a great opponent in Cortland. Just made a couple of mistakes that led to the tough result.”
Doorley echoed his coach’s thoughts on the Hawks performance against a talented Cortland team.
“We were much better against Cortland. Despite the loss we know that if we play like we did against a talented Cortland team, we can beat most teams on any given day.”
Cortland is currently ranked eighth in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Div. III with an overall 8-1 record.
Up next for the Hawks is more SUNYAC matches, as they will take on Brockport on Friday Sept. 29 and Geneseo on Saturday Sept. 30. Both of the matches will be home games for the Hawks. Doorley knows what the team has to do this weekend against their conference opponents.
“Even with how challenging SUNYAC matches are, we still need to find a way to get two wins this weekend,” Doorley said.
Second-year forward Luke Dole says that the team still has a positive mindset.
“I think that it’s easy for us to stay upbeat and positive even though it may be tough coming off of last weekend,” Dole said. “We know that one big play, goal, or win will swing us in the right direction. We have a lot of ground to make up but we know that it’s more than possible for us to achieve success this season.”