A freezing cold home opener is something of a tradition for Cornell lacrosse. Also becoming a tradition is an early season drubbing of Hobart, as the Red have beaten the Statesmen in seven straight seasons dating back to 2018.
Both traditions continued as Cornell (3-0) cruised to a 19-8 win over Hobart (1-3) on a frigid Ithaca evening, in front of about 150 of Cornell’s most dedicated fans, before falling narrowly to Richmond the following day.
Head coach Connor Buczek ’15 MBA ’17 spoke with pride about the Red’s Hobart victory.
“I’m proud of the effort. It’s a good team, a historic rivalry. I think we showed a lot of really good stuff and stuff we’ve got to clean up,” Buczek said. “But it’s still early season lacrosse, so I'm proud of the effort, proud of the way we finished the game.”
The offense led the way for Cornell, posting an impressive 19 goals on a cold night. Senior midfielder Bowie Horsman posted a hat trick and junior attackman Willem Firth put up eight points on four goals and four assists. Firth has made his transition from midfield in 2025 to attack in 2026 seamless.
“A lot of guys have made it pretty easy,” Firth said. “Ryan [Goldstein] has helped me out a ton, and watching CJ [Kirst] in that spot last year was a blast. He’s taught me so much, I still stay in contact with him.”
The Cornell defense stood strong too, holding Hobart to eight goals. Junior goalkeeper Matt Tully saved seven of 15 shots, and junior defender Ike Lohnes had an active stick all night and good physicality, picking up four ground balls.
“We’re a unit. Playing with those guys, in practice and games is a blast. Everyone’s so communicative and we get the best out of each other,” said Lohnes.
As usual, the Red dominated faceoffs, winning 21 of 31 for a 68% win rate. Senior Jack Cascadden, sophomore Michael Melkonian and junior Sam Ricci all won draws as the Cornell faceoffs.
Ryan Goldstein '27 challenges a Hobart defender.
The one area where Cornell struggled was on clears, converting just 20 of 27.
“We need to be a little bit more poised and make simpler decisions and keep our feet moving,” said Buczek. “That’s a really good team and they put a lot of pressure on you, and I think our fundamentals lacked at times today, so we’ll get into the tape, we’ll keep cleaning that up.”
Everything changed between the games on Tuesday and Saturday. A new team came to town, the temperature rose about 40 degrees and the snow around Ithaca melted. Even the games were played completely differently, from a run-and-gun game against Hobart, to a defensive battle against Richmond.
Cornell (3-1) fell 8-7 to Richmond (5-0) after a late Spiders goal.
“I thought we put together a pretty good game,” Buczek said. “We made a few too many mistakes down the stretch and gave a great team an opportunity and they took advantage, so a lot of kudos to that. They’re an excellent team.”
After a lost faceoff and a turnover to start the game for Cornell, Richmond took a 1-0 lead.
The Cornell offense struggled to generate early chances, but Tully kept the Red in the game with six saves on Richmond’s first seven shots. This allowed the Cornell offense to get going and take the lead behind two goals from Firth.
Instead of sending a pole behind the net with Goldstein early in the game, Richmond instead left him completely alone behind the net, with a pole on one post and the goalie on the other to stop dodges. The Spiders clearly believed that Goldstein’s dodging from X is actually more dangerous than his passing. Goldstein struggled with this defense early, giving away the ball a few times forcing passes.
“Based on how they were playing X we’d like to shoot the ball a little better, hopefully to have a little more success,” Buczek said.
Richmond fired back to tie the game, and the first quarter ended with a score of 2-2.
After almost 13 minutes with no score and plenty of impressive defense, it was fittingly junior short stick defensive midfielder Luke Gilmartin that finally scored to put the Red back on top. Senior attackman Matthew Perfetto then scored his first goal of the season. Perfetto started in the third attack spot after freshman Rowyn Nurry appeared injured after earning the role in the past two games.
The half came to an end with Cornell leading 4-2, and each team excelling in unexpected areas. Cornell was great defensively, specifically with Tully standing on his head for Cornell, saving 10 of 12 first half shots.
“The majority of that game we just played great team defense. A lot of outside shots, a lot of shots on the run that I was comfortable seeing early,” Tully said.
Much of Richmond’s success in the half was due to faceoffs. What looked like Cornell’s biggest advantage before the game ended up swinging Richmond’s way, with Vincent Gaylord winning six of eight draws for the Spiders in the first half and neither Cascadden or Melkonian being able to consistently beat him.
Richmond had two man-up opportunities to start the second half, but the Cornell defense stood tall. Tully and the Richmond goalie came up with big saves, but the Spiders found the first tally of the second half.
With Richmond now sending a man behind the net with Goldstein, Goldstein was able to create for the Cornell offense
Junior short stick defensive midfielder TJ Lamb picked off a pass and completed a one man clearance, leading to a Goldstein wrap-around goal. Goldstein followed it up with another wrap around off of a one-on-one dodge.
Richmond scored two to cut the lead to one, and Cornell led 6-5 going into the fourth quarter.
Cornell failed a clear early in the fourth but Richmond’s rush with numbers was met by a big save from Tully.
With flags down on the field, junior midfielder Ryan Waldman scored a tough angle bounce shot on the free possession. Cornell failed to convert on the ensuing man-up, and Richmond drew a penalty of its own, and scored on the free possession.
Matthew Perfetto '26 breaks past multiple Richmond defenders.
Cascadden came up with a big faceoff win, allowing Cornell to run out the penalty.
Goldstein got hammered with a high hit after a shot, but Cornell failed to score on another man-up, followed by the Red committing yet another penalty and letting up another goal with the flag down.
The teams alternated defensive stands with the clock winding down, until Richmond beat Tully with an outside shot with 1:04 remaining.
Cascadden moved early on the faceoff, but Cornell forced a turnover with a double team, earning a final offensive possession with 13.4 seconds to go.
Firth started with the ball in his cross, got the switch onto a short stick, but slipped, and the clock ran out with the ball on the ground.
Despite the loss, the Cornell defense put up a fantastic performance, letting up just eight goals despite Cornell deficits in faceoffs, clearing, caused turnovers, and ground balls. Tully saved 16 of 24 shots for a 67%clip.
“I thought we played solid team defense for 75% of the game and gave up a few in transition and through the subbing game, so just a few mental lapses,” Tully said.
Cornell’s ride failed to cause a single turnover from the Richmond clear. Although Cornell’s ride is not remotely aggressive, letting up 100% on clears is not a recipe for success.
“They’re the best clearing team in the country, they’re excellent at it. So a lot of kudos to them, they make it hard on us,” Buczek said.
Cornell had the worst game of its season on faceoffs, with Cascadden winning just seven of 16 and Melkonian going winless.
The Cornell offense was also listless. Each of the attackmen netted three points, but only three other players found the scoresheet, and did so with just one point each. Cornell was again without junior midfielder AJ Nikolic who is out after an injury in Cornell’s Feb. 21 game against Denver.
“He’s gonna be back out there, he’s gonna be just fine,” said Buczek.
Now Cornell will travel to State College to face Penn State, who last year dealt Cornell a loss with a similar feeling to the Richmond game. The loss to Penn State ended up being the only defeat of the year for the 2025 national champions.
We’ve got to learn from our mistakes and we’ve got to take this the right way. It’s not fatal, it’s not final, it’s still February,” Buczek said. “If we learn from our mistakes I think this could be a great jumping pad for us.”
The Red and the Nittany Lions will face off at 1 p.m. on Saturday March 7. Coverage will be available on B1G+.
