PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The No. 10 Big Red men's lacrosse team dominated the first half, and then held off a late comeback attempt by Brown on its Senior Day, to defeat the Bears, 12-9, at Stevenson-Pincince Field in Providence. The win improved Cornell to 9-4 on the season and 3-2 in the Ivy League, keeping the Big Red in contention for one of the two final spots in the Ivy League Tournament, while Brown slips to 5-8 overall and 2-3 in the conference.
 
Everything seemed to go right for the visitors in the first half, with Cornell winning 7-of-11 face-off, clearing the ball successfully on all eight tries, and turning the Bears over 11 times while building a 7-2 advantage on the scoreboard with six different Big Red players finding the back of the net.
 
Jake McCulloch pushed Cornell's lead to 8-2 just 38 seconds into the third quarter, giving the visitors their largest lead of the game. The Big Red won the restart but an unforced turnover was the start of a shift in momentum, as Brown closed the third and opened the fourth quarters on a 6-1 scoring run to pull within a single goal (9-8) with 8:09 to play in the contest.
 
The teams traded possessions before Connor Fletcher used a strong alley dodge to score his lone goal of the day and the Big Red once again dominated the final five minutes of the contest, with back-to-back goals from John Piatelli pushing its lead to 12-8 with 2:07 remaining.
 
Brown's Carson Song scored with .8 on the clock to account for the final.
 
Piatelli and McCulloch led all scorers with three goals each, with Piatelii adding one assist to match Clarke Petterson (two goals, two assists) with a game-high four points. Jeff Teat (one goal, two assists) finished with three points as nine different Big Red registered at least one point.
 
In goal, Chayse Ierlan finished with 12 saves, including eight in the second half of play to keep the Big Red from relinquishing the lead.
 
Brown held the advantage in shots (49-36), but Cornell had one more shot on goal than the home team (22-21). The Bears had more ground balls (30-25), but also had more turnovers (22-18) and more failed clears (16-21).
 
Face-offs were even, as Cornell's Paul Rasimowicz (9-16) and Luca Tria (3-8) scrapped their way to a combined 12-of-24 performance.
 
Darian Cook led the Bears with one goal and three assists, while Ryan Aughavin and Jack Kniffin each scored twice.
 
In between the pipes, Phil Goss was solid with 10 saves in the loss.
 
The Big Red returns to Ithaca for its regular season finale as it celebrates Senior Day vs. Princeton at noon on Saturday, April 27.  With the Tigers win over Harvard earlier today, the game will be pivotal in determining the final two spots of the Ivy League Tournament. Cornell can get in with a win over the Tigers.