New Paltz, NY – In nearly 20 years of its inception, the State University of New York at New Paltz women's lacrosse program has never handed a loss to SUNYAC rival SUNY Oneonta. And, after a disappointing loss to the Red Dragons on their home field just five days prior, the Hawks were ready to re-write history.
In a gritty performance Thursday, played through heavy rainfall throughout the 60 minutes, SUNY New Paltz (4-2 overall, 4-2 SUNYAC) came back and then held on to defeat Oneonta (2-3, 2-3), 13-12.
"I think for this program to beat Oneonta for the first time ever is just so relieving and it really means that we played together today. Nobody really played individually. We really came together as a team to pull out this win," said Hawks senior attacker
Amy Hofer. "After we lost to them at their field, it just gave us that incentive to come out here and play our best game, especially because this is what is keeping us alive in playoffs now."
Hofer, who is having an MVP caliber season, had another monster performance Thursday. She finished with a game-high seven goals on 14 shots with the Red Dragons struggling to limit her touches especially down the stretch with the game on the line. Oneonta totaled eight yellow cards in the game and a portion were caused trying to stop Hofer getting to goal.
"I feel like taking advantage of their yellow cards was definitely a huge part of today's game," Hofer said. "[But] even without the yellow cards, I feel like we would have been able to pull out a really good team win."
Gallery: (4-15-2021) Women's Lacrosse vs. Oneonta 4/15/21
The Newfield, NY native scored five of her seven goals in the second half, totaling all but two of her team's scores in the period. However, it wasn't Hofer but freshman
Kaitlyn Shaw who was the catalyst for SUNY New Paltz in the first half. Shaw opened up the scoring for the Hawks off a free position, responding to an early goal by the Red Dragons with her 10th of the year.
Oneonta threatened on its ensuing offensive possession, but its attempt on net hit the cross bar and came back into play. SUNY New Paltz's
Hailey Aber made a save on the rebound and she got the ball out to start the Hawks on offense on the opposite end, which led to a free position attempt for
Maddy Carullo. The Red Dragons' Jennifer Tumino made the save on the free position and the Red Dragons quickly got the ball down field and re-took the lead. They added on shortly after, as Sophia Calabrese came away with ensuing draw control, ran down the field and slotted her shot past Aber to put the visitors ahead, 3-1 with 23 minutes left in the half.
Oneonta nearly held a three-goal advantage after a Rachel Morris scored on a free position opportunity, but the goal was wiped away on an offensive holding call near the hash. SUNY New Paltz took advantage of the turnover and scored on the other side of the field, as
Ella Malanga placed one of her two goals off a free position for the score.
The Red Dragons countered with two-straight goals in the following two minutes. The latter came as the Hawks had a strong defensive stand with the shot clock waning, but Calabrese found a gap inside the arc to score her third of the game. SUNY New Paltz coach
Keith Detelj immediately called a timeout and his team regrouped from there, as they outscored their opposition 4-1 in the final 19 minutes of the half and tie the game at the break.
"The coaching staff here and myself have been watching a lot of training and they've been playing very, very well," Detelj said after the victory. "Even in our first game against Cortland had put us in a standard that we strive for every time and today was a gritty match that we knew was going to happen. Hats off to [Oneonta]. They worked hard the whole entire game. They didn't let us out of anything easy and our girls stepped up to the plate and finished the game off. I am extremely happy for them. This is a first for a program against Oneonta, so congratulations to them. They did an awesome job."
Carullo forced a bad pass by Tumino with pressure in her face on a clear. Hofer capitalized on the next possession, instigating a shooting space call and then bouncing her attempt in the back of the net for the goal to cut the deficit to two with 16 minutes left in the half. A minute later, Shaw scooped up a ground ball in front of the goal after a check on Hofer netted another to cut the score, 5-4.
SUNY New Paltz had a chance to tie early, but Tumino stepped up to make back-to-back-to-back saves in the possession to retain the Red Dragons advantage. Oneonta finally got the ball to its offensive end and Megan Foiles scored to push the lead back to two, but the Hawks weren't done.
Tara Bovich, working hard on the ride, caused a turnover in SUNY New Paltz's offensive zone that led to another Hofer goal with less than five minutes remaining before halftime. The Red Dragons had a chance to cushion their advantage once more, but Aber came through with a nice foot save on a free position attempt that turned into a two-point swing for SUNY New Paltz. Malanga, staying aggressive as the game clock winded down, dodged past her defender and slipped her shot into the back of the net for the goal to tie the game at six apiece with 43 seconds left to spare. Aber came up with one last stop with 10 seconds left after the Red Dragons won back possession off the draw to hold the game at a stalemate before heading into the following 30 minutes.
"We've been working really hard on rides and clears the whole season and that's one thing we have really taken pride with," said Hawks sophomore midfielder
Maddie Gillis. "We knew if we were going to win today we were going to have to come out and execute, and that's what we did. We caused a lot of turnovers, got a lot of ground balls and just pushed the field."
Oneonta struggled with penalties in the second half and were forced to play at least a man down for nearly 15 minutes of the second half after receiving seven yellow cards. The Red Dragons suffered a yellow just three minutes into the second half, but they fended off SUNY New Paltz to eat the penalty and took the early lead at 7-6. Up following another yellow, the Hawks responded with a goal by Hofer on a feed from Shaw to knot the game at seven.
Katie Zito gave SUNY New Paltz its first lead of the game with 21 minutes left. Rolling her defender, she found space around the crease for an unassisted goal after placing her shot top shelf past Tumino. Following a goal by Hofer and leading by two, the Hawks, again up a man, inadvertently threw the ball away on a bad pass working around the fan. Oneonta capitalized and took the ball down the field and scored another man-down goal to tie cut the score, 9-8.
SUNY New Paltz began to buckle in with about 15 minutes left and rattled off three-straight goals that ultimately was the difference in the game. Hofer capped off the run following a good clear by the Hawks with
Megan Tornatore finding Shaw in transition. Hofer highlighted the sequence by weaving through two defenders and wiping a side-armed shot that found the back of the cage to push the lead to 12-8 with just less than 14 minutes to play.
It was the Red Dragons' turn to take advantage of a man-up situation, as
Shannon Brosnan was handed a yellow with 13 minutes to go. They scored shortly after to cut the deficit and followed up about three minutes later with another goal to get within two with eight minutes to go. Hofer netted her seventh of the day following another yellow by Oneonta, as Carullo zipped a nice pass over to Hofer who put away what ended up as the game-winning score.
"She's a true competitor and she set herself up for this," said Detelj of Hofer who is averaging five goals per game this season. "She works absolutely, ridiculously hard in the weight room, with her stick, shooting, everything and she comes out to practice and doesn't hold back. She's at 100 percent the whole time. So, am I surprised that she's getting to this point? No, I think that she's a player that we always depended on even from her freshman year and she just said, 'I want to get better every year,' and she has done that. It's fun to watch. She's an exciting player."
The Red Dragons didn't let up and managed another man-down goal with less than five minutes to go to get within two. Tessa Hughes scored another with about three minutes remaining to cut the deficit to one, but the Hawks defense came through and held firm the rest of the way.
Hofer was handed a yellow on a push in transition, but SUNY New Paltz continued to work hard on its ride despite playing with a man down. Pressure at midfield forced the Red Dragons into a bad pass with Gillis waiting to pick off the feed. Gillis corralled the errant pass into her stick and sprinted down field with less than a minute to play. The Red Dragons added pressure, but with the shot clock turned off the Hawks held onto the ball until time expired before they rushed the field as history was made for the program.
"We knew we didn't have a good game the other day and our potential was way higher than what we performed," Gillis said. "We came in and we knew if we played the game that we could that we could win and that's what we did."
SUNY New Paltz out-shot Oneonta, 39-28 in the game, including 22-12 in the second half and the hosts were terrific in the middle of the field, going a perfect 20-for-20 on clear attempts. The Hawks also held the advantage in the draw circle, picking up 12-of-22 with Keydy Espinzoa putting in the work to pick up seven on the day. Gillis was the x-factor, as she tied for most in single-game program history with six caused turnovers in the game including the game-sealing one with a minute to go.
"It feels amazing," Gillis said. "This year we have really been pushing our limits and seeing how far we could go. We had a really good game against Cortland, but we knew we could do better. Just getting better every day at practice and to just keep pushing, we know we can push our limits."
Shaw finished with a career-high four points after netting three and adding an assist, while also registering two ground balls, a caused turnover and a draw control win. Malanga followed with two goals on three attempts. Aber played the full 60 minutes in goal and totaled nine saves.
"Our game plan was to go together. Whether that was high-pressure or to help out when we needed to or it was just to grit it out together and go for a 2-v-1 ground ball and just get the ball," Detelj said. "I think our midfield did a wonderful job. Our defense started to shut down a lot of their big players and they started getting frustrated and our offense picked apart the defense finally, and I think those three things combined just gave us an overall very good win."
The Hawks have two more games left on their schedule, as they will see Plattsburgh Monday and Cortland April 24 on the North Turf Field. They will likely need both victories to secure a spot in the postseason.
"Right now, it still keeps us in contention for the playoffs and that is the biggest thing," added Detelj. "We want to be in the big dance and the only way to do that is with some wins here in the last two games. Our main goal was to make sure that we got a W out of this game. They knew how important it was and they stepped up to the challenge."
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