CORTLAND, N.Y. - Four Cortland players scored goals as the nationally 18th-ranked Red Dragon field hockey team improved to 7-0 with a 4-1 non-league win over visiting New Paltz.
New Paltz, a former SUNYAC member who joined the New Jersey Athletic Conference this year, dropped to 3-5 with the loss.
Cortland outshot the Hawks, 37-4, and earned 16 penalty corners to New Paltz's two. The guests registered only one shot on goal, but that shot resulted in an early 1-0 lead as Caydence Parker scored off a shot from the top of the circle off a penalty corner insert from Maya O'Keefe just a minute and 11 seconds into the contest.
Cortland tied the game midway through the first quarter.
Kaylee Hughen (Lake Hopatcong, NJ/Boonton) dribbled through traffic into the circle and squeezed in a short crossing pass from the right side to
Anna McCarthy (Bay Shore), who scored from close range for her first goal of the season.
The Red Dragons went up 2-1 with 4:21 remaining in the first half when
Sadie Hoffmann (Miller Place) sent a ball to the right that
Tori Peterson (Whitney Point) redirected into the cage for her team-high fifth goal of the year.
The score remained 2-1 until 38 seconds into the fourth quarter. On a penalty corner play,
Lillian Morse (Burnt Hills/Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake) controlled the ball at the top of the circle and sent a pass to the left. Hoffmann faked a shot and let the ball go past her to
Adrienne Mayes (Vestal), who slammed in a shot from just inside the circle for her first goal of the season.
Cortland closed out the scoring with less than three minutes remaining, also off a penalty corner. Morse earned her second assist of the game when she took a shot from the top that
Olivia Specht (Baldwin) redirected into the cage from in front. The goal was Specht's second of the year.
New Paltz goalie Grace Grant finished with 17 saves, including a stop of a Cortland penalty stroke with less than eight minutes left to keep the Hawks' deficit at 3-1. Cortland goalie
Sofia Cannistraci (Guilderland) did not record any saves.
Cortland travels to Susquehanna University next Wednesday and hosts nationally eighth-ranked Franklin & Marshall next Saturday at 11 a.m. in non-league contests.
