1,785 days.  That is how long it has been since the Mohawk Valley Men's Lacrosse team won a game.  That streak is over!  Under second year head coach Nick Evanoff, the Hawks opened up their 2020 campaign with a 13-9 win on the road at Brookdale Community College on Saturday to start the season 1-0.  The Hawks scored the first goal of the game half way through the first quarter and took a 1-0 lead when freshman Nick Baldanza slashed his way through the defense to put Mohawk Valley on the board.  After breaking the 0-0 tie, the Hawks would never trail in the game.  Sophomores Savion Williams and Adam Clemons would each add goals in the first quarter to give Mohawk Valley a 3-0 lead at the end of the quarter and a good confidence boost for the rest of the game.  Sophomore Justin Haas got his big scoring day started in the second quarter where he would record a hat trick in that period.  Haas and Baldanza each finished the game with four goals and one assist.  Williams, who was the leading scorer for the Hawks a season ago chipped in a hat trick of his own as he finished with three goals and an assist.  He also scooped up a team-high eight groundballs in the game.   

"If you get good goalie play, and can win faceoffs, you will have a chance in any game," said Evanoff.  The Hawks got just that.  Freshman Jevit Cumber has 13 saves in his debut for Mohawk Valley, and sophomore Travis Huther was 60% from the faceoff X winning 15 out of 25.  The Hawks defense played very hard and smart in the first half only surrendering three goals in the first two quarters.  The Hawks would go on to score six more goals in the third quarter to take a commanding 13-5 lead into the final 15 minutes.  Though they did not find the net in the final quarter, they got some quality shots off and played some very good defense in front of Cumber.  Brookdale's goalie Keith Dement had a fantastic day against Mohawk Valley stopping 19 shots to keep the game within striking distance for the Brookdale Jersey Blues.  Sophomore Jack Textor led the scoring for Brookdale as he finished with two goals and two assists on the day.

Mohawk Valley will return to action this coming Wednesday as they will travel back down to New Jersey to play Union County College.  Face-off for that game is set for 3:00pm!