The woes continued for the men’s polo team Saturday against the Gardnertown Polo Club as a five-goal halftime lead evaporated into a 23-17 loss for the Red. It was the riders’ third straight loss after beginning the spring semester with consecutive wins over Stanford and Georgetown.
Cornell started strongly in the first half, with cohesive all-around play by the newly altered starting lineup that featured sophomore Jeff Markle as the number two and senior Javier Alcover as the number three. However, sloppiness in committing fouls, especially late in the second chukker, did the riders in.
“That’s what we always talk about,” said head coach David Eldredge ’81.
“We can’t give up the cheap goals, and we did.”
Gardnertown’s P.J. Orthwein ’98 converted on eight of 11 penalty shots, capitalizing on every chance handed to him by Cornell.
“We got greedy, we went for something that we shouldn’t have that gave them a goal,” explained Eldredge. “That hurt us. We would have been up by nine at the half rather than [up by] five.”
The propensity to foul intensified in the second half. After cutting the Cornell lead to 15-14 at the end of the third chukker, Gardnertown took over in the fourth, outscoring the Red 9-2. Orthwein scored four goals en route to a game high 13, including a two-pointer that increased the Gardnertown lead to 20-16, all but sealing the Red’s fate.
“P.J. is a good player,” said Eldredge. “I always enjoyed him when he was here and he’s still fun to watch.”
Duncan Hunter ’83 added four for Gardnertown.
Markle led the Red scorers with seven goals. Meanwhile, Alcover and sophomore Senter Johnson contributed four apiece.
The riders will return to action in two weeks when they host the Toronto Polo Club.
Archived article by Owen Bochner