COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Cornell men's lacrosse team wore Delaware down in the fourth quarter, using a giant edge at the face-off circle and forcing three consecutive turnovers on the ride to claim a 10-8 win on Sunday afternoon at Ohio Stadium. The Big Red (13-4) advance to the NCAA semifinals for the 14th time in program history when it meets sixth-seeded Rutgers on Saturday, May 28 at noon at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Conn.
After entering the final quarter tied at 7-7,
Michael Long scored the go-ahead goal on a broken play after Cornell's ride forced a turnover. It did it again, then again a third time and
Spencer Wirtheim cashed in to make it 9-7. A face-off win by
Angelo Petrakis allowed the Big Red to put the icing on the cake when
John Piatelli found
Billy Coyle on the right side, he dodged two defenders and ripped the 10th goal of the contest into the back of the net.
Petrakis and
Chayse Ierlan got the game balls for the Big Red. Petrakis dominated the face-off circle with a 15-of-19 afternoon and had eight ground balls while scoring his first goal of the season, a rip seven seconds into the second quarter that tied the game at 4-4. Ierlan made 15 saves and spearheaded a defense that held opponents to single digit goals for the second straight NCAA game. Nine of his stops came in the decisive second half.
Gallery: (5-22-2022) Men's Lacrosse vs Delaware, 05.22.22
Piatelli scored three goals for the Big Red, including two to open the game and give the Big Red an early lead.
Michael Long added a goal and two assists and Wirtheim netted a pair of goals. All-America defender
Gavin Adler caused two turnovers and was responsible for three ground ball wins. The Big Red held dominant advantages in ground balls (39-25) and face-offs (16-6). Head coach
Connor Buczek, who already led the Big Red to a share of an Ivy title and now to the national semifinals, also earned the victory in the return to his home state of Ohio.
Tye Kurtz had five of Delaware's eight goals for Blue Hens head coach Ben DeLuca. The former Big Red captain and head coach's team was step-for-step with Cornell all afternoon, using four-goal and three-goal runs to take a first quarter lead and to knot the score entering the fourth. Delaware's defense caused eight turnovers in front of Matt Killkeary, who had 12 saves. The offense assisted on seven of its eight goals and held a 37-36 advantage in shots.
Piatelli got Cornell off to a great start, scoring just 55 seconds in and then making it 2-0 midway through the first. Delaware answered back with a 4-0 run to grab the lead, including a score from All-America defenseman Owen Grant to take the lead for the first time. Wirtheim slowed the momentum in the final 90 seconds of the quarter to get Cornell back within 4-3, then Petrakis snatched it all the way back with his goal in the opening seconds of the second to knot the score.
The Big Red defense took control, holding Delaware off the scoreboard for 26:09, including a shutout in the second quarter, in building a 7-4 lead thanks to a 5-0 spurt. Kurtz finally broke the drought with his second goal of the contest with six minutes left in the third. Then scored again. And again. His natural hat trick over the span of 5:47 evened the contest with 13 ticks remaining in the third.
The fourth was all Cornell. Petrakis won all five face-offs in the quarter and the final six of the night, the Big Red possessed the ball for nearly 10 minutes and built a three-goal lead, the biggest for either team all night, with nearly six minutes left. One possession, already up three, milked nearly three minutes off the clock. The Big Red also took advantage of three late frustration penalties on the Blue Hens as Delaware tried to force the action to get back into the game.
The Big Red will meet the sixth-seeded Scarlet Knights for a spot in the national championship game when the teams meet next weekend for the ninth time in program history. Cornell leads 8-1, though the programs haven't squared off since 1980. The game will be televised on ESPN2.
