Cameron Pollack | Sun Photography Editor

Senior midfield John Edmonds notched the most points of his career with six — three goals and three assists — in the Red's comeback victory over Lehigh.

April 17, 2016

Cornell Lacrosse’s Late Game Heroics Down Lehigh

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The Cornell men’s lacrosse team continued its exciting play on Saturday with a win against Lehigh. Senior midfielder John Edmonds connected with freshman attack Colton Rupp, who sent the ball into the net with just 0.1 left on the clock to seal the 13-12 victory. The game finished off a thrilling, two-win week for the Red.

“It was just a great feeling to be able to come away with a win,” said freshman midfielder Clarke Petterson.

Cornell also defeated rival Syracuse on Tuesday in an overtime thriller, which featured a game-winning goal from senior midfielder Ryan Matthews.

Petterson had two timely goals in the final 1:19 of the game to tie the game and set up Rupp’s buzzer beater in what became an incredible comeback.

“It’s easy to look at the scoreboard and see that we are down [two] goals with less than two minutes and just want to quit,” Petterson said. “But we didn’t do that [and] I’m really proud of how we came together as a team to finish that game off.”

The Red’s play was not perfect, though, and the team finished the day with 23 turnovers. The Mountain Hawks only surrendered 10.

“We had way too many turnovers so that is definitely something that our team could have done better,” Petterson said.

Including the Lehigh game, and despite the team’s 2-1 record, the Red has surrendered more turnovers than its opponents in its past three contests.

Senior midfielder Ryan Matthews cited the team’s offensive development over the course of the season as a reason for its success.

“On the offensive end, I think our chemistry is improving and we are becoming more comfortable playing with each other,” he said. “The younger guys have done a great job thus far, and I think they continue to improve everyday.”

This improvement certainly showed in the Lehigh game, with two freshmen coming in clutch with less than two minutes on the clock.

“It wasn’t the best game that we played all year, but good teams find ways to win, and that’s what we did today,” Petterson said. “It was a great team win.”

The victory was the team’s fourth in a row against the Mountain Hawks and marks the final non-conference matchup of the season. The team will finish off the year against No. 4 Brown this weekend and then Princeton the following weekend.

Currently fifth in the Ivy League standings, it is essential the Red bear down in these last two conference games in order to have a good shot in the postseason, according to Matthews.

“Our goal is to take one game at a time, play hard and focus on what we can control,” Matthews said.

Brown (10-1, 4-0 Ivy) will be a very tough opponent, according to Petterson and he said he knows the Red will have to work very hard at practice this week in order to prepare for the in-conference clash.

“It is going to be the biggest game of the year so far because there is so much riding on it,” he said. “We need to have another great week of practice like we’ve had for the past couple weeks to really prepare ourselves for a great opponent Saturday.”