New Paltz Hawks Soccer bested by SUNY Poly, 1-0

By Amy Whitman

NEW PALTZ – On day two of the Hawks Classic Tournament, the State University of New York New Paltz fell to SUNY Poly in a competitive 1-0 battle. The game marked the Hawks’ first loss of the season to set their record to 1-1.

At the close of the Hawks Classic, the win over SUNY New Paltz confirmed the Wildcats as the winners of the entire tournament, which also included opponents RPI and Sarah Lawrence.

Poly had the game’s first dangerous fast break opportunity in the second minute, but was halted by defender Owen McGarrity, who deflected the shot taken and cleared the ball upfield.

In the 18th minute, Christian Micheli dove to save a low shot from the Wildcats to keep the game tied. Following the save, Poly earned a corner kick, but Micheli deflected it away and it was taken out of the Hawks’ defensive third. Following multiple failed offensive sets from the Hawks, SUNY New Paltz committed a foul and a free kick was placed in the center of the box for Poly. Micheli again tracked the shot well and caught the ball to deny the Wildcats an opportunity to break the scoring standstill.

Soon after, Alberto Molina got through and shot low towards the Poly goal, but was deflected by the Wildcat keeper. The ball trickled out and Bryan Lizama tried to knock in the rebound but was also unsuccessful. Samuel Snider attempted to follow up with a ball sent into the box, where it was kicked around before an untimely offsides call in the 29th minute ended a series of threatening sets from SUNY New Paltz.

A shot from the Wildcats came almost five minutes later, which disturbed the Hawks’ defense for the first time in a while, but again, Micheli was ready and stopped the ball from crossing. The save from Micheli gave SUNY New Paltz a new wave of momentum, and after a foul in the midfield Snider booted one from far out, but it just skimmed the top of the crossbar and flew out.

As time started to wind down, Molina sent a big switch to find Brandon Dhanoolal in the midfield, where Dhanoolal dribbled through and had a solid chance, but just missed the net wide. Derek Viebrock deflected a kick from the Wildcats and sent it through to Dhanoolal again, but the Poly defense cleared it out before the buzzer sounded for halftime

The second showed a more balanced game between the teams with a lot of action in the midfield, but tensions started to run high between the teams, as they were both vying to score.

At the start of the second half, Dom Pineda fired one to the net, but it was kicked out by the Poly backline before reaching their goalie. The ball went back in play, and Snider took a shot that was sent wide left. The Hawks immediately got it back in their offensive third and earned a corner, which Snider took again, and Alex Wyant attempted to head the ball in but just missed the post. Brian Boylan followed with another shot, but it went out far right.

Ryan Zindler soon repossessed the ball and took a chance, but his shot was unsuccessful as well.

Three corner kicks in a row followed, which gave the Hawks another window of opportunity, but no touches connected with the back of the net, and an offsides call returned the ball in the Wildcats’ favor.

Poly broke through the Hawks’ formation and sent a ball through to their highest forward, who took it up the left field and threaded a shot to the back right corner of the net, just getting by Micheli. With the first goal of the game, the Wildcats had a 1-0 lead to fall back on moving forward.

Unfortunately, Poly was able to strategically slow down the pace of the game, and SUNY New Paltz could not come through on any set pieces and only got off two more shots before the second period was over.

Despite outshooting the Wildcats statistically, the Hawks could not finish offensively, with only 3 of their 12 shots being on net. Lizama, Wyant and Pineda each had one shot on goal. Micheli scooped up three saves for the match.

The Hawks take to the road Sep. 4 to face Union College. The game in Schenectady, NY begins at 7 p.m.