SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Cornell freshman Jeff Teat assisted on the Big Red's first four goals and scored the final two of the day for the visitors, but his game-high six points weren't enough as the No. 1 Syracuse men's lacrosse team earned a 15-8 victory this evening in the Carrier Dome.
Cornell (3-7) got off to a great start, taking a 4-3 lead into the first break, but after winning the first face off of the second quarter, the Orange's Ben Williams went on to win eight in a row, spearheading a 10-0 scoring run that put the game out of reach.
The early moments of the game were all Cornell, thanks to Teat, but the high powered SU offense was jump started by a 5-on-4 goal by Brandon Bomberry in the closing moments of the first quarter to begin the decisive run.
Colton Rupp ended the Big Red's scoring drought of 26:53 with a nice individual effort to make it a 12-5 game at the 7:16 mark of the third quarter but the teams traded goals the rest of the way to the 15-8 final.
Teat was the Big Red's leading scorer with six points (two goals, four assists), his seventh consecutive game with at least three points, becoming the second-highest scoring freshman in Cornell history with 46 points, surpassing Sean Greenhalgh (42 in 2002) to sit behind only Rob Pannell (67 in 2009).
Kason Tarbell tallied the first hat trick of his career with three goals, while Rupp,
Jake McCulloch, and
Jordan Dowiak finished with one goal apiece.
In net,
Christian Knight finished with 12 saves, reaching double-digits for the seventh time this season, and allowed 14 goals in 54:12 of action before giving way to
Dan Nemirov, who allowed SU's final goal of the game.
In front of Knight, the Cornell defense caused nine of the Orange's 14 turnovers, with
Marshall Peters finishing with two to move into fourth place all-time in Big Red history with 55 in his career. Peters also picked up a team-high five ground balls.
The Big Red used three different face-off men against Williams, who won 19-of-25 restarts. Freshman Austin Fingar had the most success, going 3-of-8 over the final 21 minutes of the contest. Fingar also handed out an assist, picked up one ground ball and caused one turnover.
Syracuse (9-1) had five players register multiple goals with Nate Solomon, Jordan Evans, and Nick Mariano all finishing with a hat trick.
The Orange held the advantage in shots (47-34), ground balls (36-27), and face offs (20-of-26).
Cornell had its fewest turnovers of the season (10), while Syracuse finished with 14. The Orange also had three failed clears (14-of-17) to the Big Red's two (18-of-20).
The game featured a combined 12 penalties, with each team finishing with six infractions for 5:30 each. Both squads registered one man-up goal with Cornell converting 1-of-3 and SU going 1-of-4.
The Big Red will play its final non-conference game of the season when it plays host to Lehigh at Schoellkopf Feild on Saturday, April 15 at 1 p.m.
