ONEONTA, NY – Hartwick men's soccer has done everything but get into the win column over the course of the first six games of the 2013 season. The Hawks have fell in three straight one-goal games, which includes overtime setbacks to Cornell, a preseason top 20 team, and nationally thirteenth ranked Tulsa. 'Wick will look to pick up its first victory of the campaign Saturday on Elmore as it hosts the Iona College Gaels (2-2-1) at 3:15 p.m.

Hartwick was nine minutes away from earning a winning result against Cornell on September 8 before a late Big Red tally in regulation and another in the second overtime gave the visitors the win. Over the last two games, the roles were reversed as the Hawks were forced to battle back from deficits against both SMU and Tulsa.

A Jhevaughn Beckford (Kingston, Jamaica/Wolmer's Boys' School) tally from a Tim Crawford (Webster, NY/Webster Thomas) assist brought the Hawks to within a goal in the 60^th minute against the host Mustangs last Friday. The Hawks had several chances to even the match but couldn't find the tying goal in a 2-1 defeat.

Late heroics from Chris Walter (Amherst, NY/Nichols School) and Max Walcott (London, England/West Herts College) pulled the Hawks level after falling behind to the Golden Hurricane 2-0 on Sunday. 'Wick had an opportunity in the waning seconds of regulation but couldn't convert and Tulsa would score the game-winner in overtime.

"We've taken a lot of positives from our performances to date against high-level teams," remarked Hartwick head coach John Scott. "We continue to learn and develop and this will be another opportunity to see how we fare against another top team."

After opening the season 0-1-1 out west with a 1-0 loss to UC Riverside and a 2-2 draw with UC Irvine, the Gaels returned to the northeast and won their next two matches over Harvard (3-0) and Albany (2-0). In their last match, a 2-1 loss to Columbia, both teams traded goals 4:45 apart early in the first half before the Lions netted what would prove to be the game-winner in the 62nd minute of play.

"Iona has a strong foundation defensively with three of the back four being seniors," said Scott. "In attack they are very technically minded with gifted players capable of causing problems if we're not ready to play."

Franklin Castellanos (3g, 3a) and Samuel Adjei (3g) are the Gaels' two top scorers this season. The two players combined to score three goals in the last meeting between Hartwick and Iona in New Rochelle in 2010, which resulted in a 5-1 Gaels' win.

"We know Iona will be another difficult game. The last few years they've done very well in the MAAC and we know we'll need to be switched on and that we'll need to work hard for 90 minutes."