ITHACA, N.Y. – The No. 4 Cornell men's lacrosse team scored the final seven goals of the game to complete an impressive comeback against Lehigh this afternoon on Schoellkopf Field. The Big Red overcame a slow start that saw the home team trailing 5-0 just over seven minutes into the contest to defeat the Mountain Hawks, 14-9. The victory – Cornell's seventh in a row vs. Lehigh and its fifth straight on Schoellkopf Field – improved the Big Red to 2-0 on the year.
 
For the second consecutive game, the Big Red's attack unit was dominant, accounting for 16 of Cornell's 21 points on the afternoon. Jeff Teat and Clarke Petterson finished with four goals apiece. Teat also added two assists to move into a tie with Mike French for fourth place in Cornell history with 105 career assists, while Petterson handed out one assist. John Piatelli chipped in three goals and two assists.
 
After a shaky start the Big Red defense settled down and junior goalie Caelahn Bullen matched a career high with 14 saves, including seven in the third quarter, to improve to 7-0 in his career. In front of him, the Cornell defense caused 12 of Lehigh's 19 turnovers, with Brandon Salvatore accounting for four Mountain Hawk miscues. Defense was just part of the day for Salvatore, who was critical in the Big Red's face-off play, picking up a team-high seven ground balls and winning 4-of-12 restarts.
 
"We had to play tougher on ball so we weren't in a position to give up easy shots like we did earlier in the game," said head coach Peter Milliman. "We were losing faceoffs and that was getting to us probably mentally more than anything else. We had to find a way to level it out and Salvatore did a good job competing on those face-offs and the loose balls in general and put us in a position to get it to our offense enough times."
 
Lehigh (1-3) dominated the face-off circle, going 18-of-27, with Conor Gaffney winning 14-of-23 and picking up seven ground balls.
 
Eight different players accounted for the visitors nine goals, with Alex Tumminello scoring twice as the only Mountain Hawk to finish with more than one point.
 
Lehigh used the lopsided nature of the face-off circle to hold the 31-24 advantage in ground balls, and also outshot the Big Red, 36-33, but both teams put 23 shots on goal and the Cornell defense held the visitors to a 1-of-8 performance on man-up chances.
 
Lehigh won the opening face-off and scored just 49 seconds into the contest to open up a nightmare start for the home team as four of Cornell's first five possessions ended in turnovers, while the fifth ended in an unreleasable penalty as the Mountain Hawks jumped out to a 5-0 lead just 7:10 into the contest.
 
Back-to-back goals by Petterson opened up a 4-0 run to get Cornell back into the contest, trailing 5-4, at the 8:38 mark of the second quarter.
 
The Big Red stayed within two goals until consecutive tallies by Lehigh to start the third put the visitors up, 8-5. Cornell responded with goals from Teat and Piatelli late in the quarter, but saw a shot clock violation with time running down thwart the team's chance to tie the game, and Tumminello found the back of the net with 42 seconds to play to send Lehigh into the final break leading, 9-7.
 
Cornell won the opening face-off of the fourth quarter and just 36 seconds later Connor Fletcher took a pass from Jonathan Donville and blasted a shot past Lehigh goalie, James Spence. The Big Red lost the en suing face-off, but Salvatore caused a turnover and moments later Piatelli scored a man-up goal off a pass from Teat.
 
Teat gave Cornell its first lead of the contest with 11:49 to play in the game and from there the Big Red never looked back with Teat adding one more goal down the stretch, along with tallies from Petterson, Piatelli and Cooper Telesco to account for the 14-9 final.
 
The Big Red welcomes UAlbany to Schoellkopf Field for a 3 p.m. contest on Saturday, March 2.