Hobart Has No Answer for Pannell, Cornell
from press release
|
|
Ben DeLuca pumps his fist in celebration Saturday. Cornell delivered a 14-9 win over Hobart in his first game as the Big Red's head coach. © Greg Wall |
ITHACA, N.Y. – After yesterday's severe
weather threatened to delay the start of the 2011 Cornell men's
lacrosse season, the game was played as scheduled and the result
was what Big Red fans hoped for as Cornell defeated Hobart, 14-9,
on Schoellkopf Field to give head coach Ben DeLuca his first career
victory. The Big Red jumped out to an 11-2 lead and then held off a
late surge by the Statesmen to pick up its eighth straight win over
Hobart and move to 1-0 on the year.
Nine different players found the scoring column for Cornell, led
by junior Rob Pannell, who finished with two goals and four
assists. Midfielders Roy Lang (two goals, assist) and Mitch
McMichael (goal, two assists) tallied three points, while attackman
Cody Bremner, midfielder David Lau and defenseman Mike Bronzino all
added two goals. JJ Gilbane, Mike O'Neil and Steve Mock had one
goal each and Chris Langton tallied an assist.
Hobart (1-1) also had nine different players score, with Alex Love
adding an assist for a team-high two-point day. Chris Pedersen was
kept out of the scoring column by Cornell senior defenseman Max
Feely.
Cornell held the edge in shots (45-31), and ground balls (31-29),
but the Statesmen dominated the face-off circle, with Bobby Dattilo
winning 18-of-24 restarts. The Big Red cleared the ball 21-of-25
times and converted 3-of-7 extra-man opportunities, while Hobart
cleared 17-of-19 and scored on 1-of-4 man-up chances.
In cage, AJ Fiore made 11 saves to pick up the win, while Evan
Kirk stopped 10 in the loss.
The Big Red won the opening faceoff on a procedure call and got
off three shots before Pannell spun away from his defender and shot
over the goalkeeper's left shoulder to put Cornell on the board for
the first time in 2011 at the 13:25 mark. Hobart won the ensuing
face-off, but despite a Cornell penalty, could not got a shot on
goal before Cornell backed up an errant shot to regain
possession.
The Big Red capitalized once it went back to full strength when
Gilbane's low shot found the back of the net with 10:05 remaining.
Cornell won the ensuing face-off and Bronzino scooped the ground
ball and went the rest of the way untouched for his first goal of
the season just 13 seconds later, making it 3-0 with 9:52 remaining
in the period.
A failed clear after a save by Fiore turned into a quick score by
Love, his first of the season, at the 8:12 mark. That goal cut the
Statesman's deficit to 3-1.
The Big Red got the goal right back up when Lau buried a close
shot on a feed from Lang with 2:16 on the clock. Cornell was
holding the ball after a caused turnover at midfield by Shane
O'Neill and the score nullified the upcoming Hobart penalty.
Cornell used a three-minute unreleasable penalty by Hobart for use
of an illegal stick to score two times and make it 6-1 early in the
second. Hobart finally struck back with a score, but a save by
Fiore on one end led to a goal by Lang on the other. Pannell
assisted on the goal for his fourth point of the day to bolster the
lead to 7-2. Pannell then found O'Neil for the team's eighth goal
with 2:06 left in the half to give the home team a six-goal lead
(8-2) that would hold until the intermission.
Pannell had five points (two goals, three assists) in the first
half, while McMichael and Lang each had a goal and an assist.
Cornell held a commanding 31-12 edge in shots and went 2-for-4 on
the extra man. Fiore made four saves for the Big Red, while
Hobart's Kirk made seven stops.
The Big Red scored the first three goals of the third period
before Ryan Korn took a pass from Jake Eisenhard in an unsettled
situation and beat Fiore to make it 11-3 with 3:38 left.
Hobart was able to score a pair of goals in a span of seven
seconds in the final minute of the third, giving the visitors a 3-0
run and cut Cornell's lead to 11-5 thanks to its dominance at the
face-off "x". Another win for Hobart and a one-minute slashing
penalty by the Big Red let the visitors get another shot, but Fiore
picked up a save and the Big Red ran out the final 20 seconds on
the clock.
Hobart opened the fourth period with a goal at the 13:43 mark to
extend its run to 4-0 and cut the deficit to 11-6. A save by Kirk
continued to build momentum for the visitors, and despite having a
disallowed goal due to a crease violation, the Statesmen were able
to get within four when Sam Miller found the back of the net on a
feed from Love with 11:10 remaining.
Cornell finally ended the run when Bronzino scooped up a ground
ball in the Hobart offensive end and went coast-to-coast for his
second goal of the day, making it 12-7 with over 10 minutes
left.
A turnover on a failed clear after a save by Fiore ended with yet
another Hobart goal. This time, Derek Akner earned a hard-fought
loose ball and fired it around Fiore to make it 12-8.
Pannell, who had been quiet for much of the second half, set up
Cornell's next goal, finding Mock on the doorstep with 3:19 left to
essentially seal away the win, making it 13-8. A little over a
minute later, Cornell capped its scoring when Bremner scored after
McMichael found him all alone on the crease to push the lead back
to six. The Statesmen were able to score one last time with 1:09,
but it proved to be too little, too late as Cornell won its season
opener.
The Big Red is back in action on Tuesday, March 1, when it travels
to Binghamton to take on the Bearcats at 3:30 p.m.
