Brown Topples Men’s Lacrosse

It was a back-and-forth battle throughout, but the No. 13 Bears spoiled the No. 2/4 men’s lacrosse team’s bid for an undefeated Ivy League season and sole possession of the Ivy title. Brown’s senior goalie Jordan Burke made 18 saves and the Bears rode the momentum from a fired-up home crowd to an 11-9 win over the Red on Saturday.
The loss drops Cornell to 9-3 overall and 5-1 in the Ivy League and ensures that the winner of the Brown-Princeton game next Saturday will receive a share of the Ivy League title. Next weekend’s game will also determine which team gets the Ancient Eight’s automatic berth to the NCAA tournament. If Brown (12-2, 4-1 Ivy) beats Princeton, the Bears will go to the tournament, and if Princeton wins, Cornell will receive the automatic berth.
In a game that featured seven ties and four lead changes, only freshman attackman Rob Pannell (two goals, one assist), junior longstick midfielder Pierce Derkac (two goals) and senior midfielder Rocco Romero (one goal, one assist) were able to score multiple points for the Red. Senior midfielders Max Seibald, George Calvert and John Glynn and junior attackman Ryan Hurley each added a goal. Glynn won 11-of-20 face-offs to lead the Red to a 14-of-24 performance at the face-off X. He also picked up seven of the team’s 23 ground balls.
“We’re extremely disappointed,” Hurley said. “We felt like we should have beaten [Brown]. We just didn’t get it done on the field.”
Sophomore attackman Andrew Feinberg scored three goals and notched two assists to lead the Bears, while senior attackman Kyle Hollingsworth scored three and dished out one assist. Junior attackman Thomas Muldoon and senior midfielder Reade Seligmann added three points each.
Both defenses were at the top of their games early on. Calvert scored the first goal of the game about five minutes into the contest, but back-to-back goals by the Bears put the home team up 2-1 at the end of the first quarter. Derkac and Glynn both scored unassisted goals less than a minute into the second quarter, then Pannell and Hurley also scored quick back-to-back goals four minutes later to send the Red into halftime up, 5-4. Brown outscored Cornell 7-4 in the second half, largely on the strength of Burke’s 12 second-half saves. [img_assist|nid=37236|title=Try me|desc=Junior longstick midfielder Pierce Derkac (5) scored two goals in the Red’s 11-9 loss to Brown on Saturday. Derkac now has four goals on the season.|link=node|align=left|width=|height=0]
“He’s obviously a great player,” Hurley said. “We kind of helped him out. We shot to the stick side which is where he’s stronger.”
With just over a minute left in the third quarter, Feinberg scored an unassisted goal from point-blank range to put the Bears up 7-6, their first lead since the first quarter. Seibald answered back with a goal with 12 seconds remaining off an assist from Pannell to tie the game going into the final quarter. Burke notched seven of his saves and Seligmann dished out two assists and scored a goal in the quarter to put Brown ahead when time ran out.
After last weekend’s upset of then-No. 1 Princeton, it seemed that the Red had leaped its biggest hurdle of the season en route to sole possession of the Ivy League title, but Brown had other ideas and shocked Cornell to set up next weekend’s playoff.
“I’m really kind of speechless,” Hurley said.