"We were playing well until that point," senior striker Will Hench said. "They didn't have many chances, but after that goal, our confidence seemed to go down."

"We were basically dominating them for the first twenty minutes," junior captain Ryan Kelly added. "But we haven't been a team that's scored a lot recently, and that goal took away most of the momentum that we had."

Just minutes before the first half ended, Strode broke the Crimson's back after striking a low shot off the inside of the right post and watching it roll into the left corner of the net, giving the Hawks a 2-0 lead.

Strode has scored three goals with an assist in Hartwick's last two games after being moved from central defender to forward.

Hartwick was able to deal with the Crimson offense even without two of its starting backs. Peter Slobodyan (knee sprain) and Ryan Tracey (deep thigh bruise) missed the game with injuries.

The Hawks added another late first half goal at the 44:24 mark, as junior midfielder Mike Deming blasted a shot into the upper left corner of the net to notch his first goal of the season.

"Our season has been a lot like this game," Hench said. "We've had bad luck all season, and this game was no different."