ITHACA, N.Y. – In a back-and-forth affair in which neither team led by more than two goals, the Penn men's lacrosse team scored three times in the final eight minutes of the contest to steal the 10-9 victory from the Big Red on Schoellkopf Field. Cornell had used a late 5-1 scoring run of its own to go up by two goals early in the fourth quarter, and had several opportunities in the final 1:59 to knot the game, but came up short.
 
The game was played at a methodical pace and the teams combined for seven shot clocks, resulting in three goals and one violation. The teams played to six ties and five lead changes, with Penn's shot-clock beating goal at the 1:59 mark providing the final lead change as the game-winner.
 
"Really unfortunate that we let that one get away," said Matt Kerwick, The Richard M. Moran Head Coach of Lacrosse. "Credit to Penn. They stayed in it. They made the plays they needed to down the stretch. I thought we started slow but once we got up to speed we started making some plays. I thought we battled through the end of the game but some really poor turnovers led to opportunities for them."
 
Cornell (1-6, 0-2 Ivy) was led by freshman Connor Fletcher, who registered career-highs in goals (five) and points (six), while classmate Jeff Teat chipped in two goals and one assist. Senior midfielder Ryan Matthews scored two impressive unassisted goals, knotting the game each time (4-4; 6-6) and linemates Clarke Petterson and Jake McCulloch each tallied one assist.  
 
"Connors doing a great job," said Kerwick "He's a worker and he's getting better and better. He's getting more comfortable back there as a freshman and he's going to have a heck of a career here because he works hard."
 
Cornell also got a solid day in the face-off circle from rookie Paul Rasimowicz, who won a career high 13 restarts as he went 13-of-23 with three ground balls and one caused turnover.
 
Penn (4-3, 1-1 Ivy) was led by Simon Mathias' six points on three goals and three assists, while JJ McBride also registered a hat trick.
 
In a battle of former Ivy League Rookies of the Year, both goalies were solid with Cornell's Christian Knight finishing with nine saves and Penn's Reed Junkin stopping eight.
 
The Big Red held the edge in shots (35-29) and ground balls (32-26), but Penn put more shots on goal (19-17). Cornell was outstanding in the clearing game, going 18-of-18, while using a 10-man ride to allow the Quakers to clear just 13-of-18. Penn finished with one extra turnover (13-12) and neither team registered a man-up goal with Cornell going 0-of-4 and Penn going 0-of-2.
 
Cornell wraps up a three-game home stand when it welcomes Dartmouth to Schoellkopf Field for Kids Day on Saturday, April 1 at 1 p.m. All kids are admitted to the game for free and there will be a post-game autograph session with the team in the Hall of Fame Room in Friends Hall.