NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Matt Donovan and Dan Lintner posted four goals apiece, and the Big Red defense held Yale without a goal for a span of 23:26 over the middle portion of the contest to help the No. 9 Cornell men's lacrosse team earn its second victory over a top 10 team this season, taking down No. 6 Yale, 14-7, at Reese Stadium. With the win, its third straight over the Bulldogs, Cornell improves to 4-2 overall and 1-0 in the conference, winning its 16th consecutive Ivy League opener. The loss is the first of the season for the Bulldogs, which slip to 5-1 overall and 0-1 in Ivy play.
 
"We finally had our first full week of outdoor practice and I think it showed in our play today," said Matt Kerwick, the Richard M. Moran Head Coach of Lacrosse. "We were crisper in our passing and more patient in our offense. Yale has a great defense but we knew if we could move the ball we could get the matchups that we wanted."
 
With his four goals, Donovan becomes just the eighth player in Cornell history to reach 100 goals and now sits eighth all-time for goals in a career (102).
 
In addition to his four goals, Donovan added two assists for a game-high six points. John Hogan tallied two goals and three assists, while Connor Buczek had a goal and two helpers. Kason Tarbell had a career-high two goals, while John Edmonds (two assists), and Bradlee Lord (one goal, one assist) also had multi-point games.
 
Domenic Massimilian won 15-of-24 face-offs and picked up 11 ground balls as the Big Red held the 31-24 advantage off the ground.
 
Defensively, Cornell held Yale to just 13 shots on goal and had six caused turnovers, with Jordan Stevens and Tim LaBeau registering two apiece. In goal, Christian Knight shook off a slow start to finish with six saves, including five in the middle two quarters as the Big Red built a 9-4 lead.
 
"I thought Coach Milliman had a great defensive plan that we executed well and Christian made the saves that we needed him to make."
 
Yale was led by Conrad Oberbeck with two goals and one assist, while Ben Reeves and Michael Keasey both added one goal and one assist apiece. In goal, Eric Natale made 13 saves in the loss.
 
In addition to winning the face-off and ground ball battle, the Big Red also nearly doubled up Yale on shots (40-22) and held the 27-13 edge in shots on goal.
 
Both teams were effective in their man-up chances, with Cornell converting 3-of-5 and the Bulldogs scoring on 2-of-4 opportunities.
 
The Big Red forced 15 Yale turnovers, including holding the Bulldogs to an 11-of-17 performance on clears with a tremendous effort on the ride.
 
Everything seemed to go Yale's way in the opening six minutes of the contest as Cornell turned the ball over on each of its first three possessions and the Bulldogs scored less than a minute in before scoring on a man-up goal from Reeves at the 13:15 mark to make it 2-0.
 
Cornell finally got on the board at the 9:08 mark when Hogan converted on a tough angle shot and less than two minutes later a man-up goal by Lintner tied the game at 2-2.
 
A goal by Oberbeck gave Yale its final lead of the game (3-2) with 2:21 to play in the first quarter.
 
Donovan knotted the contest at 3-3 when he one-timed a beautiful pass from Edmonds into the net early in the third quarter and Tarbell handed the Big Red its first lead of the contest when he picked up a loose ball off a Natale save and buried it at the 11:05 mark.
 
Keasey tied the game one final time (4-4) with a great individual effort, but his goal with 2:42 remaining in the half was the last for the Bulldogs for over 23 minutes as Cornell blew open the game with six consecutive goals.  
 
Lintner started the run when he caught a blistering cross-field pass from Buczek on the doorstep, faked Natale high and bounced a low shot into the goal, to send the visitors into the intermission with the 5-4 lead.
 
Linter scored the first goal of the third quarter, followed by a man-up goal by Hogan, back-to-back goals by Donovan, and a worm burner from Buczek to make it a 10-4 contest.
 
Oberbeck ended the Yale drought with a man-up goal with just over nine minutes to play in the game, but Lintner responded with a highlight reel goal as he picked up a loose ball on the crease and took a back to the goal, no-look shot and put it into the net.
 
Cornell stretched its lead back to eight goals (13-5) with consecutive tallies from Donovan and Lord.
 
Colin Flaherty and Eric Scott gave Yale its first back-to-back goals since the first two scores of the game to make it 13-7, but Tarbell tallied the final score of the contest, off a pass from Hogan, to account for the 14-7 final.
 
The Big Red will play its long anticipated home opener when it welcomes in-state rival Colgate to Schoellkopf Field on Tuesday, March 17 at 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast on Fox College Sports 1.