By Skyler Cain
BUFFALO – The State University of New York at New Paltz’s women’s soccer team traveled to Buffalo State for a conference match and collected three more points following a 3-1 victory over the hosting Bengals to remain unbeaten in SUNYAC play.
The Hawks (8-1-1 overall) continued to match up well against their SUNYAC opponents, while Buffalo State (5-3-2 overall) entered the matchup coming off a loss to Brockport and were looking to stay in the playoff picture.
SUNY New Paltz opened up the scoring after an assist from Katie Buquicchio found Brooke Kelleher to give them the lead in the eighth minute. Defense held up to close out the first half which saw the Hawks taking nine shots to Buffalo State’s two, giving them a 1-0 lead with 45 minutes to play.
“We were relatively direct going into our final third in the first half and lacked a degree of sophistication to create dynamic attacking sequences,” said SUNY New Paltz coach Mike Eckberg. “I thought we made really great adjustments at halftime to be more dynamic transitioning into our final third.”
In the second half, Hawks midfielder Rachel Eisert received a pass from Ally Donovan that set her up for the score and gave SUNY New Paltz a 2-0 lead late in the 54th minute. Less than five minutes later, Parris Burke joined in and scored off an assist from Gaby Treble, giving the Hawks their largest lead of the day at 3-0. The Bengals were able to get on the board in the 87th minute as Caliegh Hoerner found the back net on a nice finish off a corner kick opportunity.
“We did well to finish our chances when the moments were created,” Eckberg said. “Brooke and Parris did a great job pushing the line to get in behind and finished before their keeper could make a play. Rachel buried her chance and finished with conviction. All goals were set up with sound distribution; first from Katie to Brooke, second Gaby to Parris and third, Ally to Rachel.”
The Hawks look to be the team to beat in the conference and will hope to continue to build their momentum and their win streak when they host the Knights of Geneseo on Saturday, Oct. 8 for their Green Out Game for Mental Health Awareness.