ITHACA, N.Y. – The No. 10 Cornell men's lacrosse team scored nine unanswered goals and held Canisius scoreless for a span of 31:29 to erase a one-goal Golden Griffin lead and cruise to a 12-6 victory this evening at Schoellkopf Field. With the win, the Big Red improves to 8-3 on the season and remains a perfect 12-0 all-time vs. Canisius (2-9).
 
"We had a really good energy level the entire game but I thought the turnovers in the first half, we had a few careless ones, that kept them in the game," said Matt Kerwick, the Richard M. Moran Head Coach of Lacrosse. "We played very hard. We were a little reckless at times and had a few fouls that allowed Canisius to hang around. But the energy was outstanding and the guys played really hard. I think we just need to continue to work on finishing the ball because that was a problem again tonight … Dom [Massimilian] was outstanding as usual and our defense is playing really well right now. So if we can get the finishing part down I think we'll be a tough team to play down the stretch."
 
Senior Connor Buczek registered three goals and one assist for a team-high four points to pull within one point of tying the school record held by Max Seibald '09 for points by a Cornell midfielder.
 
"It's exciting," said Buczek. "When you go down in the record books anywhere, but especially with a storied legacy like we have here at Cornell, it's very humbling. But my success on the field is directly attributed to the every guy in that locker room."
 
Senior attackman Matt Donovan chipped in three goals, while Dan Lintner and John Hogan added one goal and one assist apiece. Altogether, 11 different Big Red players registered at least one point as 25 players came off the Cornell bench.
 
"These guys work hard every day and you want to give them an opportunity to play in a game," said Kerwick. "So it's always good to go to that depth. We felt comfortable with it … These guys are ready and we have to trust them and get them into game situations because that's going to help them. The more we can go to them, the more we can rest our legs. So whenever we can go deeper into the bench, we will."
 
The Big Red was able to take control of the game thanks to its dominance in the face-off circle. Cornell won 18-of-23 restarts, including the final 13 of the game. Sophomore Domenic Massimilian won 14-of-19 and picked up a game-high 11 ground balls, before giving way to classmate Grant Mahler, who went 4-for-4 to close the contest.
 
Defensively, Cornell forced 14 of Canisius' 19 turnovers, with Marshall Peters forcing three Griffs miscues.
 
A pair of defensemen were also critical in a momentum shifting play early in the third quarter, as Tony Britton picked off a pass and found Jordan Stevens, who streaked into the offensive box and found Dan Lintner on the crease for the easy score. The goal put the Big Red up 6-4 and opened the floodgates that led to a 5-0 third quarter for the home team.
 
The defense was ably backed by Christian Knight, who made five saves and allowed just four goals in 40:25 before Brennan Donville (15:10; 0 saves, 0 GA) and William Joyce (4:25; 1 save, 2 GA) finished the game.
 
Canisius was kept in the game by the outstanding play of goalie Alex Govenettio, who posted 18 saves in the loss.
 
The Big Red held the significant edge in shots (55-25), shots on goals (30-12) and ground balls (42-21). Cornell was nearly perfect on clears, going 18-of-19, while holding the Griffs to a 15-of-20 performance.
 
Both teams went 1-of-4 on man-up chances.   
 
Cornell is back in action this weekend as it welcomes Hofstra to Schoellkopf Field on Saturday, April 11 at noon.