Fifty-four shots, 26 saves, and 25 goals marked the men’s lacrosse team’s spring break stint. Still, for head coach Jeff Tambroni and the Red, the best number of the week was two — the number of wins — and the meaning that number holds.
“During the last two weeks, I think our guys have really focused and regained some of the hunger that we lost coming into the 2003 season,” said Tambroni. “I think we felt like our backs were against the wall against Penn State and Yale, and we came out fighting.”
The No. 15 Red (4-2, 1-0 Ivy) blew by No. 14 Yale (3-1, 0-1 Ivy) by a score of 16-8 Saturday, and dropped then-No. 15 Penn State (1-5) in a tight 9-8 defensive contest the week before. Besides remaining undefeated at home, the team also earned its second and third consecutive wins.
Sophomore attack Sean Greenhalgh seemed to have found his scoring touch, as the All-American tallied 11 goals over the two contests. Greenhalgh also pushed Cornell past Penn State, tallying all four of the Red’s fourth-period goals.
With Penn State leading 7-5, senior midfielder Nate Haswell found Greenhalgh for a sixth Cornell goal at 0:43. Greenhalgh went on to notch his second and third goals of the period all before the three-minute mark.
The first half was a low-scoring contest, however, with Penn State tallying the first goal. It wasn’t long, however, before senior midfielder J.P. Schalk evened things up on an unassisted goal with six minutes left in the first period. Junior attack Andrew Collins and Greenhalgh added Cornell’s only other first half goals.
Providing a solid defensive backstop for the Red was junior goaltender Brandon Ross. Ross made a career-high 18 saves on the day, including several key stops in the fourth period. His efforts were highly praised by both his coaches and teammates.
“He was fantastic today,” Tambroni said. “That was as good of a goalie performance as we’ve seen in a long, long time. With his competition in Justin Cynar ’02, that’s saying a mouthful right there.”
“He’s outstanding,” said Greenhalgh. “We knew he was a good goalie, but he’s played so much better than anybody ever expected. He’s just been playing great … he’s stepped it up.”
As of his own accomplishments, Greenhalgh remained modest.
“We needed a win — we were down,” he said. “I just reaped the benefits of our team. We made some great looks, I just happened to be standing on the other end of them.”
The Red continued to build offensively against the Bulldogs, as seven different players combined for 16 goals. Greenhalgh once again led the way, with six goals and two assists. Junior attack Dave Pittard also got in on the action with four tallies, while freshman midfielder Joe D’Arrigo chipped in two.
Leading the offensive effort, however, was Collins. Despite only scoring one goal of his own, Collins recorded eight assists in the contest.
“The offense runs around Andrew right now,” said Tambroni. “We’re going through him to generate not only shots, but we create a lot of our sets through Andrew. He’s done a good job of just taking hold of the attack.”
Tambroni was also pleased to see several players on the score sheet.
“We really rely on one or two guys to get us going, but with the offense that we run anyone is really capable of breaking out,” he said. “It was great to get some goals from the other side of the attack.”
Cornell returns home this weekend to play Penn this Saturday at 1 p.m. on Schoellkopf Field. The Red is currently 3-0 at home.
Archived article by Matt Janiga