Box Score ALBANY – Cornell senior Christian Knight matched a career-high with 19 saves to help the Big Red men's lacrosse team get within a whisper of upsetting No. 1 Albany, but the Great Danes used a late run to erase a Cornell lead and earn the 11-9 victory this afternoon at Casey Stadium.
 
The Big Red took a late 9-7 lead on an unassisted goal by Jordan Dowiak, his season-high fourth of the game, with 7:28 to play in the contest. Cornell managed to work four minutes off the clock, thanks in large part to four saves from Knight, before a man-up goal from Sean Eccles at the 3:18 mark started the decisive Albany run.
 
In addition to Dowiak's four goals, Cornell received two goals and one assist from Jake McCulloch, while freshman John Piatelli scored his first collegiate goal and added two assists. Jeff Teat added one goal and one assist to take over the team's longest point-scoring streak at 13 consecutive games.
 
The defense in front of Knight was solid, forcing Albany into 16 turnovers with freshman Dom Doria registering two caused turnovers.
 
Albany (3-0) was led by Connor Fields three goals and two assists. Eccles finished with two goals, both of which came during the game-winning run, and three assists. JD Colarusso, who entered the game ranked first in the nation with a.783 save percentage, finished the contest with just seven saves.
 
The Great Danes dominated the face-off circle, as TD Ierlan, the top ranked face-off man in the nation, won all 24 attempts and picked up 22 ground balls, giving Albany the 46-18 advantage as a team. The home team also had the edge in shots (40-30) and cleared the ball successfully on 15-of-16 attempts.
 
The Big Red scored 1-of-2 extra man goals and held Albany to just 2-of-7 on man-up chances.
 
Cornell (1-2) will look to rebound with a midweek game vs. Binghamton on Schoellkopf Field on Tuesday, March 6 at 5 p.m.