CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- On a day that Cornell won its 33rd Ivy League title and senior
CJ Kirst tied the NCAA Division I record for career goals, it was the quiet plays that added up to give top-ranked Cornell a 20-12 victory at No. 10 Harvard on Saturday afternoon at Jordan Field. The win was Cornell's third this season over a top 10 opponent by five or more goals and improved the Big Red to 11-1 (5-0 Ivy), while the Crimson fell to 9-3 (3-2 Ivy).
Kirst scored five goals and assisted on a sixth with his final goal of the day matching Virginia's Peyton Cormier atop the NCAA list with 224. Sophomore
Willem Firth found Kirst on the doorstep for a dunk with 6:04 remaining to tie the record, a moment that may have been matched earlier in the contest with his outburst of three goals in a 41-second span after a scoreless first quarter.
Firth had four goals and an assist and classmate
Ryan Goldstein was credited with three goals and three assists to pace an offense that assisted on 13 of its scores and had 11 different players find the back of the net. Senior
Michael Long had a goal and two assists to move into the top five all-time in a career at Cornell, matching Mike French '76 with 105.
There were plenty of heroes in the win, which clinched hosting duties for the Ivy League Tournament and the no. 1 seed.
Jack Cascadden dominated at the faceoff X with a 23-of-29 effort that included a goal and 14 ground balls, while
Wyatt Knust made 12 saves in goal.
Eddie Rayhill and
Matt Dooley each caused a pair of turnovers to spark the defense.
Cornell dominated time of possession and successfully cleared the ball when it had the chance against Harvard's ride (17-of-20), seemed to win nearly every contested ground ball (43-34 edge) and was 2-of-3 on the extra-man.
Logan Ip had two goals and three assists to lead the Crimson, while Sam King - the second-leading active NCAA scorer behind Kirst - was held to a goal and two assists. Logan Darrin led the Harvard defense with three caused turnovers and four ground ball wins, while Charlie Muller and Martin Nelson had two apiece.
The Big Red scored the game's first five goals and never trailed, though the Crimson put Cornell under pressure several times. Firth and Goldstein both found the back of the net twice during the opening salvo, but Harvard answered with a 3-0 run spanning the first two quarters to get within one. Cascadden quieted the first rally by winning a faceoff and racing down the field uncontested to blast his eight goal of the year to stop the run.
Harvard got within 7-5, but the Big Red scored four in the span of just 1:32 with Kirst scoring a natural hat trick in the span of just 41 seconds to get on the board. The teams traded scores until Cornell went into the break with a 12-8 lead. Cornell won 16-of-22 faceoffs in the first half, including 15-of-17 with Cascadden in the circle with nine ground balls and a goal. Twice the Big Red scored within 15 seconds of winning a restart.
The Crimson came out firing on all cylinders to open the second half, scoring three times in 3:48 to narrow the deficit to 12-11. With the crowd electrified, Cornell got its partisans going when
Ryan Sheehan found
Ryan Waldman to increase the lead back to two.
The Big Red dominated the rest of the way out, with the defense holding Harvard off the board for more than 22 minutes while going on an 8-0 run that was only broken up by a man-up goal by the Crimson with four minutes left and the Big Red up by eight goals. Kirst's score with 6:04 was heard around the college lacrosse world and sets up an exciting Senior Day for Kirst and his teammates that will also feature an Ivy championship celebration.
NEXT UP
• The Big Red men's lacrosse team will close out the regular season and celebrate its seniors when it faces Dartmouth on Saturday, April 26 at 12 p.m.
• The contest will be broadcast on ESPN+.
• Cornell leads the all-time series 57-15 and sports a 12-game win streak over the Big Green.
• Extending it back, the Big Red has won 24-of-25 meetings in the series and is 52-5 against Dartmouth since 1966.
