SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- The Cornell men's polo team rallied from a fourth chukker deficit to knock off Skidmore 19-17 on Sunday afternoon. The win starts the Big Red off on the right foot for the 2012-13 campaign.

Hakan Karabey, Connor Pardell and Justin Schick started for the Big Red and traded goals with Skidmore throughout the first chukker. Skidmore would lead 6-5 headed to the second. The Thoroughbreds scored the first three goals to take a four-goal lead and went into the half ahead 11-8.

Branden Van Loon, Nick Stieg and Alex Langlois came in for Cornell in the second half.  Skidmore was feeling confident, but the new Cornell trio would close the gap to 14-13  by the end of the third. Finally warmed up, Cornell scored four of the first five goals of the fourth to take the lead and outscored the Thoroughbreds 6-3 in the last chukker to bring home the first win of the season.

Van Loon and Stieg would each score six goals to lead the Big Red in scoring. Schick added four, Karabey posted two, Pardell had one and there were two penalty goals.