ITHACA, N.Y. – Cornell freshmen Jeff Teat and Connor Fletcher became the most prolific rookie scoring duo in Big Red men's lacrosse history, passing Rob Pannell and Roy Lang, as Cornell downed Lehigh, 16-11, this afternoon at Schoellkopf Field. Six Big Red players finished with at least three points, and Christian Knight posted a career-high 17 saves to earn the victory for the home team.
 
A complete team effort was necessary to counterbalance Lehigh's dominant 24-of-30 performance in the face-off circle, including a mark of 14-of-15 in the first half. The Mountain Hawks' Conor Gaffney won 19-of-23 restarts, forcing the Big Red to use six different options in the circle, including senior transfer Ryan Matthews, who took his first face-off since the 2014 season when he played for Johns Hopkins. Freshman defenseman Brandon Salvatore had the best performance of the day for the Big Red, winning 5-of-16. He also caused two turnovers and picked up five ground balls to go along with his first collegiate goal.
 
Cornell also used a smothering ride, especially early in the contest, holding Lehigh to a 4-of-8 performance on clears in the first half, to earn some key possessions as it battled to a 7-6  lead at halftime.
 
TURNING POINT
Midway through the third period with the score tied at 9-9, Cornell's defense held the Mountain Hawks without a goal for a stretch of 17:20, while the offense embarked on a 7-0 scoring run to put the game away.  
 
The run was started by back-to-back goals from Clarke Petterson, with the first coming at the 6:53 mark. Petterson then handed out consecutive assists on goals from Fletcher and Teat, respectively, to make it a 12-8 Cornell advantage heading into the final break.
 
Fletcher and Teat each scored in the early moments of the fourth quarter before Teat found Jake McCulloch in transition for Cornell's first man-down goal of the season. The tally capped the Big Red's run as the home team took a 15-8 lead with 8:40 to play in the contest.
 
COACHES CORNER – MATT KERWICK
It was great to see the guys really put together the effort as a team. That's been the theme the last couple of days. Individuals can't win games. You have to do it as a unit and as a group, together. I think the attack unit was outstanding. I think the offensive midfield was outstanding. Our entire defense was excellent.
 
One individual that I thought was incredible was Christian knight. He had the game of the season for him. He was really poised. He was seeing everything. When we got a little sporadic in the fourth quarter he bailed us out.
 
I think the hustle plays always turn it for us. We were struggling big time at the x so we made a change there and we got a few early in the third quarter. I think that helped us. We thought we were getting good looks. We haven't played against much zone, so we only had two days to get ready for their zone. So the comfort level with the offense took a little bit of time to get there.
 
FACTS & FIGURES
• Jeff Teat finished the game with four goals and four assists to lead all scorers. It is his eighth straight game with at least three points.
• Clarke Petterson extended his point-scoring streak to nine games with a career-high six points on two goals and four assists.
• Colton Rupp also had a career-high with three assists to go along with one goal
• Connor Fletcher recorded his third career hat trick.
• Both Jake McCulloch and Jordan Dowiak tallied two goals and one assist.
• Christian Knight had a career-high 17 saves, reaching double-digits for the second game in a row and the eighth time this season.
• Walt Gahagan finished with two caused turnovers, extending his streak to six consecutive games with at least one caused turnover.
• Lehigh held the advantage in shots (50-45) and ground balls (37-36).
• The Mountain Hawks cleared the ball successfully just 14-of-19 times and finished the game with 19 turnovers.
• Cornell cleared 20-of-23 and posted just 14 turnovers in the game.
• Leigh registered the only man-up goal of the game (1-of-4) as the Big Red went scoreless on three chances.
• Cornell assisted on 14-of-16 goals.
• The victory is the fifth in a row vs. the Mountain Hawks and sixth straight vs. the Patriot League.
• Head coach Matt Kerwick is undefeated vs. the Mountain Hawks at 5-0.
• The win was the 745th victory in program history.
• Lehigh (6-6) was led by Lucas Spence with four goals, while Andrew Petit finished with three goals and two assists for a team-high five poitns.
• In goal, Donny Stires made 15 saves as his record evens at 2-2.  
 
NOTES TO KNOW
• Teat and Fletcher have amassed 83 points with at least two games remaining in the season. They became the highest scoring freshman duo in Cornell history by passing Rob Pannell and Roy Lang, who finished the 2009 campaign with 78 points.
• The 2017 freshman class has registered 91 points from seven different players, setting the school record as the highest scoring rookie class. In today's game, they surpassed the rookie class of 2009 (86) and the 2016 freshmen (82).
• Jeff Teat now ranks third among all Cornell freshman for goals in a season (25), tied with Rob Pannell.
• Connor Fletcher now ranks fifth among all Cornell freshman for goals in a season (21), tied with Steve Mock.
 
UP NEXT
Cornell will enter the final Ivy League stretch when it travels to Providence to take on Brown on Saturday, April 22 at 4 p.m.