ITHACA, N.Y. -- In a game of runs, No. 8 Yale had the final say and held off a determined Cornell squad 13-11 on Saturday afternoon at Schoellkopf Field. The Bulldogs won the Ivy League opener for both teams and improved to 5-1, while the Big Red dropped to 3-3.

In a game that neither team led by more than two goals all afternoon, the Bulldogs' Ben Reeves scores the go-ahead and insurance goals in the final four minutes to lift the defending league champions to the win. The Big Red led 11-10 after Jeff Teat and Connor Fletcher scored consecutive goals 36 seconds apart midway through the fourth quarter, but Yale netted the final three of the game, including an empty-net tally with under one minute to play.

Teat led the Big Red offense with four goals and two assists, while Paul Rasimowicz won 17-of-28 face-offs and picked up six ground balls to give the Big Red plenty of opportunities. Christian Knight made 11 saves to keep Cornell in the game on the defensive side, including eight in the first half. In all, Cornell held a 37-33 edge in shots and a 23-22 advantage in ground balls. The Big Red was nearly perfect on the clear (11-of-12), but finished with four more turnovers than the Bulldogs (14-10).

Reeves and Jackson Morrill each had four goals and an assist, while Christopher Keating caused three of Cornell's 14 turnovers. Jack Starr made six saves to pick up the win in the cage.
 
Teat got the Big Red on the board just 1:03 into the contest, but Yale had a response at the 8:10 mark. A goal from Johnathan Donville restored the lead to the Big Red, but the visitors closed the quarter with two unanswered to go into the break up, 3-2.
 
Back-to-back unassisted goals from Fletcher and Teat put Cornell up, 4-3, but Morrill tied the contest with his first goal of the game with 11:16 to go in the second quarter. The teams traded the next four goals before McCulloch and Teat scored consecutive tallies 57 seconds apart to give Cornell its largest lead of the game, 8-6, with 10:38 to go in the third quarter.
 
Yale answered with four straight goals to take its largest lead of the contests, 10-8, with 1:13 to play in the third, but the Big Red scored the first three goals of the fourth quarter to take its final lead, 11-10, with 8:02 to play.
  
COACH'S CORNER – PETER MILLIMAN
It's obviously a disappointing loss. We wanted that one very badly. We were competing well enough to deserve it but we didn't earn it at the end of the day. There were some plays there at the end that bit us. That's a very good team ... With games like that it's really important that you execute across the board. 
 
I think our guys played hard and they played well and we executed for the most part … I'm proud that our face-off unit played hard and Paulie [Rasimowicz] got some scrappy victories there. I'm proud of our guys for winning the ground ball battle against a tough team. 
 
I think we knew how good they were. We knew we had to be at the top of our game and maybe the top of our game isn't quite figured out yet. I think we've proven that we can play with top 10 teams but that's not a moral victory for anybody. I don't think anyone in our locker room is satisfied with that. 
 
NOTES TO KNOW
* Yale wins back-to-back games on Schoellkopf Field for the first time since earning consecutive triple overtime victories in 1994 (7-6) and 1996 (11-10). 
* With 11 saves by Christian Knight, Cornell's goalies have posted double-digit saves in 10 consecutive games. 
* After winning just 8-of-21 face-offs (.380) vs. Conor Mackie a season ago, Rasimowicz rebounded with his best performance of the season, winning 17-of-28 restarts against Mackie this afternoon (.607).
* Rasimowicz had a season-high six ground balls.
* Jeff Teat extended his point-scoring streak to 16 games.
* Colton Rupp scored his first goal of the season.
 
UP NEXT
Cornell continues Ivy League play when it travels to No. 19 Penn to take on the Quakers on Saturday, March 24 at noon.