COLUMBUS, Ohio – Facing its first ranked opponent of the 2020 campaign, the No. 9 Cornell men's lacrosse team was un-phased, defeating No. 16 Ohio State, 17-16, on Sunday afternoon at Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio to improve to 4-0 on the season. With the loss, the Buckeyes drop to 3-2.
In a fast-paced game with no shortage of goals, the Big Red built up a 16-10 lead over Ohio State with 12:53 remaining in the fourth quarter after a Jonathan Donville goal assisted by John Piatelli. However, Ohio State was not going to allow Cornell to walk away with an easy victory, and the Buckeyes made it interesting down the home stretch. After Donville's goal, Ohio State scored four unanswered goals in the next six and a half minutes of play to cut Cornell's lead to two, 16-14.
This is when Donville and Piatelli struck again, as Piatelli threaded a great pass to Donville for an even better finish, giving Cornell a 17-14 advantage with 2:50 left in the contest. The Buckeyes weren't done yet, however, as Ohio State's Tre Leclaire and Jack Myers each netted a goal in the final minute of the contest to bring the score to 17-16 in favor of the Big Red with 0:25 left in the game.
Ohio State won the ensuing face-off and got the ball to its half of the field before calling timeout to talk things over with 0:15 on the clock. Ohio State's Jackson Reid got one last look and took a shot in the final seconds of the contest, but Chayse Ierlan came in clutch and made the save, preserving a 17-16 Big Red victory.
Cornell was led in the win by Piatelli, Jeff Teat, and Donville, who were all key facilitators behind an impressive Big Red offense. Piatelli's fantastic start to his junior season continued, as he notched five goals and three assists for a career-high eight points. He has now scored at least four goals in every contest he has played this season. Donville recorded a hat trick of his own on Sunday, netting three goals, two of which came in the fourth quarter, and an assist for four points.
As for Teat, he continues to make Cornell history, scoring four goals and tallying two assists for six points. With the performance, he officially moves into third all-time in Cornell history in career points (262), surpassing Eamon McEneaney '77 (256 points).
If the outcome of Sunday's contest was dependent on play in the face-off circle, the Buckeyes' would have been the ones to finish out the day with a mark in the win column. Ohio State dominated at the X, winning 30 of the 37 face-offs for the contest and holding Cornell to only two face-off victories in the first half. But despite the Buckeyes' success in that facet of the game, the Big Red didn't let it become a game-changing factor. Instead, Cornell relied upon its highly efficient offense and found multiple other ways to one-up Ohio State.
The Big Red defense forced Ohio State into a turnover frenzy, as the Buckeyes had a whopping 25 turnovers as compared to Cornell's nine. The Big Red especially turned up the heat in the second half, pressuring Ohio State into 18 turnovers, including 11 in the third quarter alone. Brandon Salvatore, Danny Boccafola, JJ Lombardi, and Paul Rasimowicz were all credited with a caused turnover in the third quarter, helping to keep the Buckeyes off of their game.
Cornell also played a much smarter game than the Buckeyes, as Ohio State had a number of penalties that played to the Big Red's advantage. The impact that these penalties had is not necessarily reflected in the box score in terms of extra man opportunities, as Cornell was just 1-of-4 and Ohio State 1-of-5 on man-up chances. However, it was the timing of a pair of unsportsmanlike conduct penalties for the Buckeyes that allowed Cornell to take advantage.
After a neck-and-neck first quarter and a half, Cornell found itself with a slim 7-6 lead at the 10:36 mark in the second after Ohio State's Jackson Reid netted a goal. It seemed as if the momentum was starting to shift toward the Buckeyes, but with 8:33 remaining in the half, Ohio State turned a man-up chance into a 5-on-5 situation after an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. Suddenly, an opportunity that would have been favorable for the Buckeyes' turned into an easy scoring opportunity for Jeff Teat, who scored a goal to make the score 8-6 in favor of Cornell.
Several minutes later it appeared as if the Buckeyes' would get two full minutes of man-up play after an un-releasable penalty was called on the Big Red, but Ohio State got called for yet another unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. After a minute of scoreless 5-on-5 play, Ohio State took a timeout to talk things over with 50 seconds of man-up time remaining. The timeout was intended to help the Buckeyes strategize, but it proved detrimental when they neglected to take note of the time remaining on the shot clock. Ohio State failed to get a shot off, being called for a shot clock violation and ruining their man-up chance. Cornell capitalized on Ohio State's mental miscue, as Piatelli immediately scored on the ensuing possession to give the Big Red a 9-6 lead.
The Big Red was called for five penalties in the first half spanning 5:30, but Ierlan helped the Big Red kill off all five of them, making some great saves in the process. Ierlan made six saves in the first half, three of which came during man-down situations for the Big Red. He was a big reason why Cornell went into halftime with a two goal lead, 9-7.
Ohio State quickly tied things back up to start the third quarter, scoring a pair of goals to even the score at 9-9. This is when Cornell flipped a switch, scoring five unanswered goals over the next seven minutes of play to take a 14-9 lead. The entire Big Red offense got involved during this scoring run, as five different Cornell players (Cooper Telesco, Michael Long, Teat, Piatelli, and Donville) scored the five goals. Ohio State would score one more goal before the end of the third quarter, but Cornell led 14-10 through 45 minutes of play.
The Big Red opened up the fourth quarter with two more goals from JJ Lombardi, his second of the day, and Donville to claim its biggest lead of the afternoon, 16-10. This is when Ohio State worked its way back into the game, but Cornell held strong, going on to defeat the Buckeyes, 17-16.
The No. 9 Cornell men's lacrosse team will be back in action on Sunday, March 8 when it takes on No. 2 Penn State in the Crown Lacrosse Classic at 4 p.m. in Charlotte, N.C.
