The No. 13 men’s lacrosse team (7-3, 4-0 Ivy) stayed perfect in league play, when it traveled to Hanover, N.H. to take on Dartmouth (7-2, 1-1) Saturday afternoon. Sophomore Kevin Nee had a career-high three goals, and junior Andrew Collins had five assists and two goals to lead the Red over the Green, 13-5.
“It was a big win for us because it was an Ivy League game and Dartmouth was a good team,” explained senior tri-captain Ryan McClay. “We definitely needed to play a good game for us to get the win. We played hard, picked up a lot of ground balls. The defense played well and hopefully we got a little confidence going into this week.”
Collins agreed about the importance of the game stating, “We really wanted to come in and take this as the most important game of the season because at this point we don’t have time for any lull or let down. We have to play every game like it’s the playoffs, and every game is just as important as the rest. We just wanted to put together a full 60 minutes against what we saw to be a very talented Dartmouth team.”
Three minutes in, Collins opened all scoring on an unassisted shot to start the game.
“Collins did a great job controlling the tempo of the offense,” praised head coach Jeff Tambroni. “Last year, his marker held him to one assist and he really took it personally and he did a great job in practice preparing for the game.”
This lead held until two and a half minutes left, when Dartmouth junior Russell Radenbaugh tied it up off a pass from classmate Tom Daniels. He finished with four goals.
Cornell responded, scoring just 14 seconds apart with goals from sophomore Sean Greenhalgh and McClay to close out the first quarter. McClay’s tally was his first goal of the season.
Increasing Cornell’s lead to 5-1 in the second quarter, freshman Joe Boulukos and Collins found the back of the net, beating sophomore Andrew Goldstein. Goldstein finished with five saves.
Dartmouth sophomore Ben Grinnell scored his only goal of the game, brining the score to 5-2. That score stood until a minute left in the half, when Greenhalgh scored off a pass from senior Nate Haswell.
“I think our offense played a really good game,” said Collins. “I think we had a lot of opportunities that we missed and a lot that we made good on. We worked a lot on playing together this week with a two- and three-man game, not just one player trying to dodge and create offense. I think both the midfield and attack were really playing together and I think that really showed.”
The second half saw Cornell and Dartmouth trade goals, with Red scores coming from senior tri-captain J.P. Schalk, sophomore Justin Redd, junior Dave Pittard, Haswell and three more from Nee. Haswell’s shot with five minutes remaining in the third quarter was his first career goal.
The second midfield, made up of Haswell, freshman Joe D’Arrigo and Andrew Reenstra, was a contributing factor to the success of the team on Saturday, especially Haswell.
“Nate Haswell, without question has stayed true to his loyalties, and has remained a member even though he hasn’t received a lot of press like his counterparts,” said Tambroni. “It was wonderful to see him get on the board. He played on the second midfield line and they were the spark we needed on Saturday. They really stabilized our offense and gave it some flow.”
Defensively the team played well, preventing freshman Jamie Coffin from scoring, while limiting him to only three shots. The first-year player left the game during the first half and tried to return on a few occasions, but was never able to play up to his full strength. Entering the game, Coffin had 17 goals and 18 assists.
“Timmy did a great job,” said Tambroni of the match-up between junior Tim DeBlois and Coffin. “Coffin plays a lot older and more mature than you would expect him to be playing. We were happy in this first match-up to be able to defend him. I thought Timmy played very well and within the game plan and allowed us to take advantage of Ryan McClay and Frank Sands on other match-ups.”
The defense also kept Grinnell under wraps, allowing him to get just four shots on net and one goal off of a face off.
“Those were their two big guys,” said McClay. “It was important to shut those two guys down because that’s where their offense ran from. We knew that if we shut them down it would help us generate some offense and it worked out well for us.”
“I thought our defense played real well,” said junior goalkeeper Brandon Ross. “This was the first weekend that we really felt defensively, that we played pretty sound. Our game plan was focused on Grinnell and Coffin, and if we defended those guys we were going to be able to shut out their offense. Overall, our defense played real well.”
Ross supported the defense with a strong game, finishing with 13 saves.
“Brandon played great,” praised McClay. “I think early on he got us going, because they got a few good shots off and Brandon made some great saves.”
The Red’s next contest will pit it against Princeton on Schoellkopf Field this Saturday when the two remaining undefeated teams in the Ivy League square off.
Archived article by Kristen Haunss