No. 11 men’s lacrosse had not lost two games in a row since 2023 and had not lost by 12 or more since 2016. Both streaks came to an end March 8 after the Red took a 19-7 gut-punch loss to No. 9 Penn State (4-3).
“I didn’t feel like the mentality was right from the jump and we dug ourselves too big of a hole to start to really climb out of,” head coach Connor Buczek ’15 MBA ’17 said. “Every time we seemed to mount something, you know, they shut it down.”
But on yet another cold day at Schoellkopf, Cornell reversed its fortune with an 18-9 win over Brown (3-3, 0-1 Ivy League) on Saturday.
Cornell (4-2, 1-0 Ivy League) started the game with energy and offense that had been lacking in the past couple of weeks. Cornell shut out Brown in the first quarter and scored five goals of its own to take a commanding lead right out of the gate.
Brown scored to open the second frame, but Cornell fired back seven straight goals in response, capped off by a goal from senior close defender Brendan Staub with one second remaining in the half.
Brown managed just six shots in the first half, with only four on goal, compared to the Red’s 30 and 18, respectively.
Brown regained some energy with a 5-1 run to start the third quarter, but Cornell answered with another five straight goals to push the lead to 18-6 and essentially put the game to bed early in the fourth quarter.
The game would end with a final score of 18-9.
After the thrashing against Penn State, it was a welcome change for Cornell to be on the other side of a blowout.
As usual, junior attackman Willem
Firth led the way for Cornell with five goals and three assists for an eight point day. Junior attackman Ryan Goldstein picked up a hat trick and three assists.
Ryan Goldstein '27 celebrates his second goal.
Cornell had plenty of man-up time with Brown taking five minutes of penalties, which the Red used to its advantage scoring seven man-up goals. Freshman midfielder Seamus Riordan put up four points behind a hat-trick, all of his scoring coming on the man-up.
On defense, junior goalkeeper Matt Tully bounced back from his tough start against Penn State, saving 10 shots and holding Brown to eight goals in his time in the cage. Sophomore goalkeeper Tim Piacentini also saw time, saving three of the four shots faced. Sophomore defenseman Michael Marshall provided some energy at long-stick midfield, picking up three ground balls and causing a turnover.
The Red won 20 of 29 faceoffs on the day, though senior faceoff specialist Jack Cascadden,who has had the bulk of the workload this season, did not play. Sophomore faceoff Michael Melkonian won 14 of 21, while freshman faceoff Eli Friedman, junior faceoff Sam Ricci and sophomore defenseman Beck Mahoney combined to go six of eight on the remaining draws.
Cornell was also able to improve in other facets of the game, including clearing, where the Red were 14 of 14 and forced four Brown turnovers on the ride. The Red also dominated the ground ball battle, securing 39 of 62.
The key to winning ground balls?
“It's not schematic, it's not anything other than fundamentals,” said Buczek.
Cornell will continue on its four game Ivy League stretch, facing Princeton next. With Cornell faltering a couple times in non-conference play, Ivy League results have become more important than usual.
The conference has Harvard and Princeton ranked in the top 5, Cornell and Pennsylvania in the top 20 and Yale receiving votes. This will make the four spots in the Ivy League tournament highly contested, but could also help teams strengthen NCAA tournament cases.
“We challenge ourselves out of conference, and we play some of the best teams in the country, and the hope is to make sure that that puts us in a position to be successful when we get to Ivy League play,” Buczek said.
The Red will face off against the Tigers at noon on Saturday, March 21 in Princeton, New Jersey. Coverage will be available on ESPN+.
