SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The No. 4 Syracuse men's lacrosse team scored five unanswered goals to end the second and open the third quarters, blowing open what had been a one-goal game, to defeat the No. 10 Big Red, 14-6 this afternoon at the Carrier Dome.
 
"This is about what we anticipated from SU," said Matt Kerwick, the Richard M. Moran Head Coach of Lacrosse. "They are very talented and they come at you in waves. But we'll learn from it and we'll get better."
 
Sophomore face-off man Domenic Massimilian and sophomore goalie Christian Knight were a pair of bright spots for the Big Red. Massimilian, seeing his first extended collegiate playing time, went 14-of-23 against one of the top face-off men in the nation a year ago and finished with a career-high seven ground balls. Knight tallied 13 saves, including nine in the first half to keep Cornell in the game early in the contest.
 
"I think Dom was great for us today," said Kerwick. "Face-offs were a bit of a question mark for us coming into the season but he did a fantastic job. I also think Christian was outstanding, but we gave Syracuse too many chances and we let the game get away from us in the second quarter."
 
Cornell (0-1) was led by senior midfielder Connor Buczek's three goals and junior midfielder John Edmonds two tallies. Senior midfielder John Hogan handed out two assists, while junior transfer Bradlee Lord chipped in one goal and sophomore defender Marshall Peters added one assist.
 
Syracuse (2-0) had seven different players find the back of the net and was led by Randy Staats and Hakeem Lecky with three goals apiece.  Defensively, the Orange snapped Dan Lintner's 16 game goal scoring streak as Bobby Wardwell had 10 saves in 56:45 before giving way to Warren Hill, who finished with a pair of saves.
 
Playing on a full field for just the third time since practice began on February 1, the Big Red struggled early on with maintaining possession and finding quality shots. Cornell turned the ball over 10 times in the first 30 minutes, compared to the Orange's five miscues. Additionally, Cornell had 17 shots overall but just seven were on goal. Syracuse, on the other hand, took 19 shots and put 15 on cage.
 
The Big Red cleaned up its performance in the second half, but still finished the game with 16 turnovers and 19 shots on goal on 36 shots. Syracuse ended the game with 11 turnovers, seven of which were caused by Cornell, and put 27-of-38 shots on goal.  
 
Cornell cleared the ball successfully 11-of-12 times, while the Orange cleared just 19-of-24.  The Big Red also went 1-of-2 on man-up, while Syracuse cashed in 2-of-3 chances.
 
Knight looked sharp right from the start, saving the first five shots he faced before Staats connected on a time-and-room shot from the left wing with 3:38 remaining in the first quarter.
 
Dylan Donahue pushed SU's lead to 2-0 with a man-up goal early in the second period, but just over one minute later Edmonds scored on a great individual effort to cut the Cornell deficit in half.
 
That was as good as it got for the Big Red, as the Orange rattled off five straight to go up, 7-1 in the opening moments of the third quarter.
 
A man-up goal by Buczek, with the assist to Hogan, ended the Cornell drought just one minute into the third quarter. The Big Red won the ensuing face-off after a long scrum that found the ball in Peters' stick and Lord made it two in a row when he beat Wardwell up high to make it 7-3.
 
Consecutive goals from Staats and Lecky restored the six-goal lead to the home team before Edmonds registered his second of the day, a blast from the right wing, off a pass from Hogan to make it 9-4.
 
The Orange rattled off three more unanswered tallies before an unassisted from Buczek made it a 12-5 game heading into the final quarter. Syracuse tacked on two more in the final 15 minutes before Buczek registered his third of the day to account for the 14-6 final.
 
The Big Red returns to action next weekend when it travels to Geneva to take on Hobart on Saturday, Feb. 21 at 1 p.m.