SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Despite a two-goal lead late into the third period, the No. 11 men’s lacrosse team lost to the No. 6 Georgetown Hoyas Saturday in Syracuse. Cornell led 3-2 at the half, but eventually lost 13-6 as the Hoyas went on a nine-goal scoring run.
While there was no denying the late collapse, head coach Jeff Tambroni did not feel that the game slipped away in the third period.
“This game was certainly not lost in the second half,” said Tambroni. “We played a lot of defense in the second half, we played a lot of defense all game. We got worn down defensively.”
The game started well for the Red as it notched one goal at 0:56 and grabbed a second within the same number of minutes. Sophomores midfielder and All-American Justin Redd and attack Kevin Nee scored the two goals. Junior transfer attack Dave Pittard wasted no time in contributing to his new team, earning an assist on both goals.
The Hoyas, however, eventually succeeded in finding Cornell’s weak spot. The Hoyas moved in quickly as Jordan Vettoretti fed the ball to Neal Goldman for their first goal of the night. Georgetown was quick to regain possesion and had put itself into prime scoring position just minutes later, but Cornell’s defensive unit broke up the play by forcing a ground ball.
The Red had several more offensive opportunities during the first half, but failed to score on the Hoyas goalie until midway through the second period. A pass from senior J.P. Schalk found freshman Joe Boulukos as the rookie netted his first collegiate goal to put Cornell ahead 3-2. Possesion was mixed for the remainder of the half, with Georgetown applying more and more offensive pressure.
It took Boulukos just 0:44 after the whistle to open the second half scoring. After receiving the ball from sophomore Kyle Georgalas, Boulukos cut his way through the defense and found the back of the net from point blank range.
Georgetown and Cornell then traded goals as the Hoyas netted their third, and Red junior attack Andrew Collins answered back. From there, however, the game turned in favor of Georgetown.
The Hoyas went on a nine-goal run that lasted into the closing minutes of the fourth period. Goldman tallied three more goals for Georgetown over the stretch.
Overall, the Hoyas outshot the Red 45-21, and connected on 11 of those shots for second half goals. While Cornell converted a higher percentage of shots to goals, they also did so too quickly.
“Georgetown kept a pretty good pace on us, and our offense didn’t do us any favors by holding the ball for any length of time, for any possessions.”
Boulukos echoed his coach’s comments, citing that the offense has some improving to do.
“We need to posses the ball more,” he said. “Defense had the ball on the end of the field for 45 minutes of the game. We have to be able to hold onto the ball to give them a break.”
Cornell snapped Georgetown’s scoring streak in the fourth period. The goal by junior All-American Tim DeBlois, and assist by Redd came too late, however, as the game ended just minutes later.
Despite the breakdown, Tambroni was pleased with the performance of his defense, especially his goaltender.
“You look at our defense and I thought they actually played pretty well,” said the coach. “Brandon Ross, in his first start ever as a college lacrosse player, played great.”
The coach was also pleased with the play of Boulukos.
“We were pretty excited about Joe and the effort he gave us today,” Tambroni said. “He made some mistakes, but they were freshmen mistakes. For the most part, we thought he was very composed and when he had an opportunity he made the most of it.”
The team returns to action this Tuesday at 4 p.m. on Schoellkopf field, as the Red faces another ECAC opponent, Colgate.
Archived article by Matt Janiga