ITHACA, N.Y. – With less than three seconds left in the second quarter, Cornell's Matt Donovan brought an errant Big Red shot back in play, whizzing it past two defenders into the stick of John Hogan, who buried the shot as the buzzer sounded to give the home team a 9-4 edge.

Nearly 40 minutes of game action later, the Cornell men's lacrosse team closed the door on Penn's comeback attempt with its first goal since heading to the locker room with that five-goal lead. This time, Dan Lintner played the hero 1:40 into the third overtime to knock off the Quakers 10-9 on Saturday afternoon at Schoellkopf Field.

Lintner finished off a hat trick by coming around goal, taking a feed from Connor Buczek on the run and burying a shot past Penn backup goalkeeper John Lopes, who had stonewalled the Big Red after entering the game at halftime. The win was Cornell's second sudden victory score in five days on Schoellkopf, sending the Big Red bench onto the field in celebration much the same way Matt Donovan's shot against Colgate did on Tuesday against Colgate.

"I told them in the locker room, 'Now we know how to win overtime games. Let's not do it again for a while. Let's do it the regular way from here on out,'" said Matt Kerwick, the Richard M. Moran Coach of Lacrosse. "In the end it's a win in the Ivy League and those are always tough." 

Lintner finished with three goals, while both Donovan (one goal, three assists) and John Hogan (two goals, two assists) had four-point days. Buczek had two goals and an assist, including the game-winning helper after charging in with the ball from the top of the circle, opening a lane for the cutting Lintner.

Christian Knight had 13 saves, three off his personal best, and stopped both shots he saw in the extra session, including a save on what would turn out to be Penn's final possession. Marshall Peters, who scored a goal and won three ground balls for the Big Red, caused two turnovers, while Jordan Stevens held Penn leading scorer Nick Doktor to a goal and an assist in the loss.

"I thought Penn brought a lot to the table," said Kerwick. "They took a lot of shots and tested Christian, but I thought he was really on top of his game. I thought our defense played really well in forcing them to take outside shots, which was the objective, and Christian was up to the task." 

Domenic Massimillian won 14-of-22 faceoffs and scooped up 11 ground balls to help Cornell win the possession battle throughout, even during a second half where the Big Red's final goal was its only one.

Penn notched five unanswered second half goals, four in the third and the game-tying score with 3:14 remaining to send it to overtime. The Big Red then fought off a number of dangerous Penn possession and frustration that came after its first nine overtime shots were turned away or went  wide before Lintner's final shot. In fact, the Big Red launched 27 total shots in the second half and overtimes before the 28th found the back of the net.

"I was obviously not that pleased with the third quarter," said Kerwick. "We allowed them to stick around by the way we cleared the ball in particular and by just not burying our shots and that's the key. You can't allow teams to stay around at this level. There are just too many good players, too many great teams, and too many great coaches. If you don't bear down and take advantage of every opportunity teams will come back on you. That's what Penn did, in large part due to the goalie they put in during the second half. He made some big saves."

Penn's Lopes made nine saves while allowing only the game winner after entering at half with his team trailing 9-4. Joe McCallion had four goals and an assist to lead the Quakers on offense, while Reilly Hupfeldt had a goal and two assists. Connor Keating won six ground balls for Penn, which held a 55-49 advantage in shots and stayed close in the ground ball category against a Cornell team that has won it in each of its first eight games (40-35).

Despite no goals being scored in the first two overtimes, there was plenty of back-and-forth action. The Quakers opened up the first extra period with the ball after a Big Red penalty late in regulation allowed them to hold the ball and gain possession without having to test Massimillian. The teams combined for 11 shots in the first two overtimes, including a 6-0 Big Red advantage in the second. Knight made a save in the first and third, Lopes made one each in the second and third. Penn won the opening faceoff in the third, but Knight stoned a low shot and the Big Red went back the other way and called timeout. Hogan squeezed off a shot that Lopes saved, but Donovan won the race to the loose ball to keep possession for Cornell. That effort paid off less than 30 seconds later when Lintner ended it.

For the first 30 minutes, there were few signs there would be so much drama. Penn scored the first goal, but the Big Red went on a three-goal run to take the lead. It would never surrender it. Cornell answered the Quakers' second goal shortly before the end of the first quarter with a dynamic offensive show to open the second. The Big Red scored three goals in the span of 48 seconds and five in just 3:04 to turn a one-goal game into an 8-2 lead with more than 10 minutes remaining before halftime. The home team would score only once more, on the last-second Hogan goal as the teams were readying to head to the locker room, before the end of regulation.

Penn chipped away at Cornell's lead with four goals in the second half largely on the shoulders of Lopes, who stopped three Big Red shots in the third and four in the fourth to keep them off the scoreboard. Penn needed every one of them to eventually get the score that knotted the game at 9-9. Doktor, bottled up nearly all day, got his hands free to find Will Laco in front and that was all he needed to tie the score. Cornell won the ensuing faceoff and drew a one-minute penalty from the visitors, getting four shots in the final two minutes. Lopes saved two, including corralling the last one and sending his team the other way. The Quakers drew a penalty with a quick transition attack, but held the ball the final nine seconds to retain possession for the first overtime.

Cornell returns to action when it plays host to Dartmouth on Saturday, March 28 at 1 p.m. at Schoellkopf Field.