ITHACA, N.Y. – Cornell men's lacrosse fell, 12-8, in a back-and-forth battle with Harvard on Saturday afternoon at Schoellkopf Field. Neither team led by more than two through the first three quarters, but the Crimson outscored the Big Red, 4-1, in the final period to earn the victory.
 
"Overall I was really pleased with the effort," said Matt Kerwick, the Richard M. Moran Head Coach of Lacrosse. "I thought the guys played as hard as they could. The execution wasn't great at times. I thought we had a lot of really good opportunities but couldn't bury the ball. Tip your cap to their goalie. I thought he played an excellent game. We need to continue to work on our shooting and finishing the ball. I think it was a heck of a lacrosse game … It was a scrap all the way through."
 
Freshman Ryan Bray led Cornell with two goals and John Edmonds finished with one goal and one assist as the only mulit-point scorers for the Big Red. In total, nine different Cornell players found the scoring column.
 
Domenic Massimilian went 20-for-24 (.833) on the faceoff with a career-high 17 ground balls with no turnovers. He also scored just his second goal of the season, giving Cornell its only lead of the contest with 7:49 to play in the third quarter.
 
"I thought Dom was outstanding," said Kerwick. "That was one of the best games I've seen him play here at Cornell and he's had some good ones. They haven't had a lot of success at the face-off X, but they have two of the better poles in the country on that senior defense. So the put them up and try to harass you but I thought Dom really handled it well today. That's a tribute to his work ethic and Coach Kivlen working with him."
 
Harvard (6-5, 2-1 Ivy) was led by Will Walker with three goals and Devin Dwyer with two goals and two assists.
 
Cornell (4-5, 1-3 Ivy) had the edge in shots (40-38), and ground balls (38-27). The Big Red also converted 1-of-4 man-up chances, while the team's man-down defense held its seventh opponent this season without a goal (0-2).
 
Both teams put 25 shots on goal and both team's goalies played extremely well with Harvard's Robert Shaw and the Big Red's Brennan Donville finishing with 17 saves and 13 saves, respectively.
 
The Crimson had eight fewer turnovers (15-7), with nearly half of Cornell's turnovers being caused by Harvard (7).
 
"In the third period we had three or four turnovers that were unforced and gave them life," said Kerwick. "I thought even though we scored four in that quarter, we turned it over on simple exchanges. It's one thing when we turn it over feeding the crease. We don't mind those, but when you have a turnover that's a simple exchange on the perimeter that can hurt you in a tight game."
 
The visitors opened the scoring off a goal from Welker, but Edmonds answered for the Big Red with 6:45 left in the first quarter with a blast from the right side.
 
The teams exchanged quick chances with less than five minutes remaining in the quarter, with Donville and Shaw each making big stops. Sean Mahon made the Crimson's next shot count, though, to put Harvard up 2-1 with 4:20 left in the period.
 
Senior Ryan Matthews pulled Cornell even 1:23 into the second quarter, tucking away a difficult-angle shot. Harvard took back the lead on an Ian Ardrey tally with an assist to Dwyer, who also set up the Crimson's next goal, feeding Sean McDonagh for a 4-2 Harvard lead with 9:24 left in the half.
 
Freshman Colton Rupp cut the deficit back to one on a strong individual effort, powering through a pair of defenders and finishing as he was falling to the ground.
 
With a man-advantage early in the second half, the Big Red knotted it the score at four. Edmonds sent a pass from the right side to Bray on the far post. Harvard responded quickly however, with Dwyer getting one of his own to give the Crimson a 5-4 advantage with 13:15 left in the third quarter. Walker added another to push Harvard's lead back to two.
 
Three quick Cornell goals gave Cornell its first lead of the day. Sophomore Jack Bolen scored in transition off a pass from senior defender Tony Britton to bring Cornell back within a goal with 8:32 to go in the third. Bray then added his second of the day, taking a long feed from classmate Clarke Petterson 36 seconds later. Massimilian won the restart and sprinted in to score just seven seconds later, tying the fastest time between two goals this season after the Big Red scored twice in seven seconds last week against Dartmouth.
 
Harvard once again answered, however, with Joe Lang knotting the game at seven and Dwyer regaining the lead for the Crimson on a pass from McDonagh with 1:52 left in the third.
 
With Cornell a man-down, Donville made a big save to kill the Harvard chance, but the Big Red could not convert on the other end and consecutive goals by  Lang and Mahon  pushed Harvard's advantage to 10-7 with 6:15 to go.
 
Sophomore Andrew Keith's low shot cut the difference back to two about two minutes later. Moments later, senior Emmy Poccia had a good look but Shaw managed to get a stick on it.
 
The Crimson tacked on two more in the final 2:17 against the Big Red's 10-man ride. With a 30-second man-advantage, Cornell had a pair of last-minute chances, including a shot from Petterson that was denied by Shaw.
 
The Big Red remains home and welcomes upstate rival No. 10 Syracuse to Schoellkopf Field for a midweek matchup on Tuesday, April 12 at 7 p.m.