Red Holds Off Crimson Run

They came, they played, they conquered. This weekend, the men’s lacrosse team made a little mark on the pages of lacrosse history by playing and defeating the Harvard Crimson in the first lacrosse game ever played in Gillette Stadium, in Foxborough, Mass. The Red also secured its 10th consecutive victory over the Crimson.

“It means a lot so far to be the first team asked in there to play and to play an Ivy League opponent like Harvard,” said junior Matt Moyer. “Hopefully we can build from the victory and continue that in our next couple games coming up.”

Although the squad has sometimes struggled to come out with intensity in the first half, on Saturday the Red (8-1, 3-0 Ivy) started the game with a bang. With the offensive efforts of sophomore Ryan Hurley (five goals and one assist), senior co-captain John Glynn and junior co-captain Max Seibald, the Red went on an 8-1 scoring tear in the first two quarters. Meanwhile, Cornell’s defense and senior goalie Jake Myers, who finished with double-digit saves (10) for the third time in his last four games, kept up the energy on the back end of the field by holding Harvard (4-5, 0-2) scoreless for almost 27 minutes in the first half. [1]Get that stick out of my face: Sophomore Ryan Hurley (26) led the team in points and goals during the Red’s 11-7 win over Harvard.

“We played a lot harder in practice this past week and put in a lot more effort on the practice field which gave us a little boost of confidence coming in knowing we had worked so hard during the week,” Moyer said. “John Glynn did a great job winning face-offs and Ryan Hurley did a great job finishing the ball on attack. We were just able to jump up on them and that gave us confidence to continue on throughout the game.”

In the second half, the Crimson attempted to turn the tables and stage a comeback in spite of the Red’s considerable lead. Capitalizing on the Red’s momentary aggressive let-up, Harvard managed to narrow the gap by scoring six additional goals.

However, the Red revived the momentum it created in the first two quarters to hold the Crimson to a total of seven goals.

“It seems every team these days in lacrosse is able to make a run at some point in the game and we need to contain the run as best as we can and regain some of the momentum,” Moyer said. “They definitely got a little bit more opportunities than we would have liked to give them throughout the course of the game. You have to tip your hats off to Harvard, they did a good job of coming back.”

Maintaining its undefeated Ivy record against Harvard gave Cornell an important boost of confidence for the Red with just five games to play in the regular season.

Moyers thinks that the squad will need to maintain and improve upon the effort it has been giving in practice and on the field in order to have success against the rest of the Ancient Eight schedule.

“We always talk about staying the course no matter whether you are up or down you have to stay the course and keep playing Cornell lacrosse and that’s what we do regardless of what the score is,” Moyer said.