ITHACA, N.Y. – The No. 8/8 Cornell University men’s lacrosse team opened up the home portion of its 2008 schedule with a hard-fought 9-8 victory over No. 17/16 Army on a rain soaked Schoellkopf Field. Seven different Big Red players found the scoring column and freshman goalie Mat Matinez made a phenomenal save as time expired to help Cornell earn the win.
Cornell scored five goals in the second quarter to build a decisive lead and then held off an Army barrage, as the Black Knights scored twice in the final 1:06 of the game, to pull within one, but the Big Red escape with the 9-8 victory.
“This team is still looking for their identity,” said head coach Jeff Tambroni. “Seeing seven guys score nine goals shows that a lot of guys are capable of scoring and contributing and that’s very nice to see.”
John Glynn was outstanding on the afternoon, leading the team with three points on one goal and two assists, while winning 14-of-19 face-offs and collecting a team-high eight ground balls. Max Seibald and John Espey registered two goals each, while Kyle Doctor added a goal and an assist. Ryan Hurley, Chirs Finn and Shane O’Neill each tallied one goal and Finn added six ground balls.
Army (2-2) was led by Brooks Korvin with three goals and Kevin LoRusso with a goal and an assist.
Between the pipes, Jake Myers made the start and earned the win for Cornell with five saves and four goals against, before Matinez came on to start the second half and made four saves and allowed four goals. For the Black Knights, Adam Fullerton was solid making 12 saves in the loss.
Cornell (2-1) held the advantage in shots (38-27), ground balls (36-25) and face-offs (15-of-21).
Neither team registered a man-up goal with the Big Red going 0-for-2 and Army going 0-for-1.
Army jumped out to an early 2-0 lad midway through the first half thanks to goals by LoRusso and Justin Bokmeyer but three straight tallies gave the Big Red a 3-2 lead. The first goal in the run came from Finn, who took a pass from Doctor and found the back of the net with 3:42 left in the first quarter. Eight minutes later, Espey found the cage to knot the game at 2-2, before Doctor got his second point of the game, scoring off a pass from Glynn.
Korvin scored his first goal of the game when he collected a rebound off a Myer’s save and slipped it past the Cornell goalie to make it 3-3 at the 8:17 mark of the second quarter.
O’Neill responded nearly immediately with a great individual effort as he fought through two Army defenders to score the first goal of his collegiate career and make it a 4-3 Cornell lead.
Back-to-back goals by Seibald and Glynn six seconds apart gave the Big Red a 6-3 advantage with just under four minutes to play. Seibald’s goal came with 4:05 showing on the clock as he bullied his way towards the crease and scored despite having a Black Knight draped on his shoulder. Glynn won the ensuing face-off, streaked up field and beat Fullerton with a rocket from 10-yards out at the 3:59 mark.
Army cut the lead to two goals as the clock wound down in the first half when Rob McCallion sent a pass from behind the net to Korvin, who converted from 15-yards out, to send the Black Knight’s into the intermission trailing, 6-4.
Hurley was the first to strike in the third quarter as he rolled around the crease, faked high and then beat Fullerton down low to make it a 7-4 Cornell lead.
Two unanswered goals by Paul Wigdzinski and Jason Peyer completed the scoring in the third quarter and made it a one-goal game as Cornell entered the final stanza with a 7-6 lead.
Neither team found the back of the net for the first 10 minutes of the fourth quarter but Seibald broke the stalemate when he drove down the left side and ripped a shot from eight yards out past Fullerton to make it an 8-6 game with 4:46 to play.
With 2:22 left in the contest, the Big Red regained possession of the ball and began the process of running out the clock. Army countered by pulling Fullerton out of the goal to double-team. With the open goal, Cornell took a chance as Seibald drove to the cage but his shot was stopped by Fulleton, who had raced back to the net and made a dramatic save with his body. The rebound bounced Cornell’s way, however, and after several crisp passes Espey sent the ball into the empty net to give the Big Red what would prove to be the game-winning goal.
Army’s two goals in the final 1:06 came from Roy Ragusa and Korvin to account for the 9-8 final.
The Big Red remains in Ithaca to take on Canisius on Schoellkopf Field on Wednesday, March 12, at 4 p.m.