Pregame Thoughts:
Here we go. It is a great day, and Cornell is going to make the final push. It has won all 13 games this season, but it needs to win four more to get the grand prize. Standing in its way in the first round is Towson, a team that lost to Delaware in its conference final. The Red somehow earned the No. 4 seed in this tournament, despite going undefeated during the regular season. Frankly, I do not know what else it could have done, except a harder schedule. However, with six Ivy games, this is not an easy task. Cornell played Duke, Princeton, Notre Dame and Syracuse. It is not the Red’s fault that Syracuse had a down year. Despite Cornell’s low strength of schedule, it had a very high RPI (second in the nation). At the very worst, the Red should have gotten a two or three seed. A four is just absurd.
First Quarter:
12:55 – Cornell is controlling the pace early, as Towson has not even had an offensive possession. The Red has also picked up a couple of early ground balls.
11:42 – A Towson goal gets waived off for being in the crease. Nice break for Cornell.
10:05 – A Towson player was in the crease again. Somewhere, Dominik Hasek is crying inside for refs actually calling a player in the crease.
8:54 – This game is being broadcast by ESPNU. Therefore, there a cameraman on the field. There is also a guy running behind him letting out the slack. What would this guy’s job title be? Slack guy? That’s got to hurt your ego.
5:55 – Max Seibald passes it to Brian Clayton, who is waiting to the goalie’s right, for the easy score. It is amazing to watch the transformation in Seibald’s game. He has become a much better passer as the year has progressed.
4:19 – As David Mitchell scores again to up Cornell’s lead to three, Towson calls a timeout. Interestingly, the Tigers meet in two separate groups, I am assuming one for offense and one for defense. Meanwhile, the Red meet in one team circle. You have to wonder what that does to team unity when your team is separated in timeouts.
0:14 – The Cornell band just sang an indecipherable chant. It was the tune to “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” Seriously guys, I did not understand a single word.
Second Quarter
14:10 – Towson finally gets on the board by someone named Cryder DiPietro. That sounds like one of those fake names that sends that crazy junk mail to our Cornell email accounts.
10:25 – Mitchell has four goals. Towson has two.
9:12 – It is time to talk about Towson’s uniforms. They are yellow lettering on a black background. They look like the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. They really aren’t that bad uniforms. However, I will ask this question: aren’t Tigers ORANGE? I am not exactly George of the Jungle, but I have never seen a yellow Tiger. I guess Cornell should lend some of our animal scientists.
7:33 – Cryder DiPietro scores again. Upon hearing this, the New York Islanders gave him a 15-year contract. That joke was too hard to resist.
2:17 – It is absolutely freezing in the press box. This is how I complain about it, by blogging. If this is not he definition of passive aggressive, I don’t know what is.
0:00 – Cornell is up 8-3 at halftime.
Halftime
I am really disappointed that there is no halftime entertainment. At halftime of the Hobart game, there was a pee-wee lacrosse game. Would it be hard to get them again for today’s game?
Third Quarter
14:17 – Towson replaced Matt Antol in goal with junior Billy Sadtler. Frnakly, I do not understand this move. Sadtler did not play that much this year, and Cornell scores eight goals on everyone. It is not like Antol was playing that badly. We will see if the move pays off for the Tigers.
9:25 – Pittard scores easily. Towson may eventually regret this goalie decision.
8:22 – McMonagle makes a nice save. Earlier today, I was watching a video interview with McMonagle on LaxPower. At the end of the interview, the interviewer of course calls him “McGonagel.” This guy is the Ivy League Player of the Year! Get his name right! Someone has obviously seen Harry Potter too much. Because Matt McMonagle really resembles Professor McGonagel from Harry Potter. Let’s see, one is one of the best lacrosse players in the country. The other is an old woman who teaches transfiguration and can turn into a cat anytime she wants. I can see why it is so easy to get them confused.
5:50 – One of the guy cameramen down on the field is talking to the woman cameraman next to him. This has to be the most awkward flirtation situation ever.
4:25 – Nick Gradinger is down on the field. This is not good for Cornell. The Red has been relatively injury free throughout the year, save for a few exceptions. Cornell cannot lose a starting defenseman at this time of the year.
3:26 – Gradinger is back in the game. I just wasted 30 seconds of my life typing that last paragraph.
2:07 – Mitchell scores again. The race is on now. Who is going to score more, Mitchell or Towson?
Fourth Quarter
14:56 – Interesting state of the day: Towson has scored all four of its goals so far on extra-man opportunities. Penalties have been an Achilles Heel for Cornell all year. We will see if they can improve that next week.
10:49 – Clayton scores to make it 13-4. I think that is time to talk about the crowd. I have mentioned it in my last blog, but the Cornell crowd is never evenly distributed. There are way more people on the north side of the stadium than the south side. Come one people. There are plenty of good seats on the other forty yard line. I am now dubbing this Abnormal Crowd Distribution (ACD). Together, we can win this fight against ACD!
6:31 – Towson’s mascot was here earlier, but now he is gone. That is too bad. I guess he was too embarrassed to stick around. Frankly, I do not understand why we do not have a mascot coming to our lacrosse games. I would love to see the Cornell bear and the Towson tiger get into a fight. Who would win that? I don’t even know. I would give the edge to the bear, because tigers are relatively lazy, I think.
5:47 – The Cornell crowd has really thinned out over the past couple of minutes. I guess everyone is racing out to catch that 5:00 p.m. showing of Delta Farce.
5:22 – What happened to Superman Seibald? He has not been on the field in a long time. Cornell cannot afford to lose him to injury.
0:56 – Mitch Belisle just absolutely leveled someone. Time to cast him in the sequel to the 300.
Postgame Thoughts
This wasn’t the greatest blog ever, mostly because I also had to write the game recap. I promise my next one will be better. Wait, I should stop talking about myself. As for Cornell, it took care of business today as usual. It will be interesting to see what happens next week against (probably) Albany. The Red is going to have to avoid penalties though, or at least play a little better on the man down.