March 9, 2010

Men’s Lacrosse Crushes Binghamton at Home

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As local rival Binghamton came to Ithaca yesterday afternoon, the men’s lacrosse team was ready to take down the Bearcats (1-4) for the seventh time in seven opportunities. After a slow start in the first quarter, the No. 8 Red regained its momentum to take down Binghamton, 19-4, at Schoellkopf Field.

The first goal of the game came more with luck than anything else, as a ball aimed by senior attackman Ryan Hurley went unassisted into the Bearcats’ net at 1:21 in the first. The next eight minutes saw a few attempts by both teams, but no real action came until Binghamton netted the equalizer with 5:32 to go. The quarter concluded, 3-2, in the Red’s favor. Of these other two Red goals, one was made unassisted by sophomore Chris Langton, who had a breakout game yesterday, tallying two additional goals and an assist.

“We could have come off stronger in the first period,” said sophomore attackman Rob Pannell. “Only 3-2 after the first quarter is definitely not where we wanted to be.”

After the close first quarter, Cornell was able to widen the gap by scoring five goals to Binghamton’s one in the next stanza before halftime. Two penalties were committed by the Bearcats in the last five minutes of the second quarter, but the Red was unable to fully take advantage of either opportunity.

“Once our guys got rolling a little bit through the second quarter –– and certainly into the third quarter –– we just did a good job of keeping the pressure on Binghamton and continuing to keep the pedal down,” said head coach Jeff Tambroni in a post-game press conference.

With halftime finished, the Red visibly continued to pick up energy as it completely dominated play the second half. The third quarter saw similar results as the second, with Cornell leading in goals, 6-1. The goal scored by the Bearcats with 7:48 to go in the third during a man-advantage signaled the last time that Binghamton would add a point to the board. Cornell finished the fourth quarter in a 6-0 sweep, with five of six goals unassisted.

Notable to the game were the 12 different players whose names earned points for this game, showcasing a spectrum of ability held by the Red and emphasizing that the goals are not limited to only a handful of starting players.

“Overall I was very happy with the results of our 19-4 win,” Pannell said. “We came out strong and capitalized a lot on our chances in the second half … to allow people who don’t necessarily play was great, but I would’ve liked to see us get out to a quicker start than we had.”

The game also witnessed some key plays by the Red, revealing that its strategies going into this season have the potential to bring greater team accomplishment.

“I thought the guys made little plays [yesterday] that we’ve been harping on for quite some time in the early part of the season that we’re going to need to make in the middle part of the season if we have any kind of success,” Tambroni said.

Original Author: Reena Gilani