Early surge leads No. 9/11 Cornell past No. 17/18 Mountain Hawks, 12-10

Saturday, April 14

Bethlehem, Pa.

2:30 p.m.

Lehigh University

8-5

Cornell

9-3

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
Cornell	4	2	4	2	12
Lehigh	2	2	2	4	10

Early surge leads No. 9/11 Cornell past No. 17/18 Mountain Hawks, 12-10

4/14/2018 6:30:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score

BETHLEHEM, Pa. – No. 9/11 Cornell used a 4-0 first-half run to turn a 2-2 tie into a 6-2 lead as the Big Red topped the No. 17/18 Lehigh men's lacrosse team, 12-10 on Saturday afternoon in front of 1,231 fans at the Ulrich Sports Complex. The Mountain Hawks pulled within 6-4 at the half, but Cornell slowly built its lead back up in the second. Junior Lucas Spence led the Lehigh offense with four goals while sophomore Conor Gaffney enjoyed a strong bounce-back game, winning 16-of-23 faceoffs with nine groundballs.

"I thought our guys battled hard," said Lehigh head coach Kevin Cassese. "We challenged our guys to play a whole lot better and a whole lot tougher this week, and they did. We just came up a little bit short today."

Saturday was Senior Day as the Mountain Hawks recognized their five seniors - Nolan Apers, JJ Foley, John Mehok, Ian Strain and Brady Thompson - prior to opening faceoff. With the loss, Lehigh falls to 8-5 on the season with one regular-season game remaining, at Bucknell next Friday night. Currently standing 5-2 in league play, the Mountain Hawks will be the No. 3 seed with a win against the Bison and the No. 4 seed with a loss. Either way, Lehigh is guaranteed to host a Patriot League Quarterfinal game on Tuesday, Apr. 24.

In the end, Lehigh's defense held the nation's No. 1 offense more than three goals below its season average. The Mountain Hawks held the Big Red to their fewest goals in six games, since they scored 11 on Mar. 17 vs. Yale. Cornell had been averaging 18.6 goals over its last five games entering the day. Lehigh held the Big Red to just six goals over the game's final 42:44.

"We struggled a little bit defensively early and they got up on us," said Cassese. "Except for the first quarter and a little bit of the second quarter, I thought we did a good job on their offense, which is phenomenal. The beginning proved to be too much."

Along with Spence's four goals, junior Tristan Rai tallied two goals and an assist while classmate Andrew Pettit had two goals and four groundballs. Defensively, junior Craig Chick recorded four groundballs and two caused turnovers to reach 111 in his career. He moved into sole possession of 10th place in NCAA history in that category. With his four groundballs, Chick eclipsed 150 GBs in his career.

Three others also tallied two caused turnovers apiece – junior Eddie Bouhall, freshman Teddy Leggett and Strain. Strain added a goal and six groundballs on his Senior Day. Leggett recorded four groundballs to eclipse 50 on the season.

The Mountain Hawks' extra man continued to impress, finishing 3-of-3 on the day. Lehigh has now converted seven straight man-up opportunities and 15 of its last 18 to improve to a nation's leading 67.6 percent on the season (23-of-34).

Spence began the scoring just over a minute into the game on the extra man. Later in the quarter, a tremendous individual effort by Pettit evened the score at two. The Big Red reeled off the next four goals, but a man-up tally from Pettit, followed by an even-strength goal from Rai on a delayed penalty, pulled Lehigh within 6-4 at the half.

(4/14/2018) Men's Lacrosse vs. Cornell (Senior Day)

Cornell scored the first two second-half goals and five of the first seven to open an 11-6 lead early in the fourth. Lehigh didn't back down as junior Austin Pierce scored on the man advantage at 12:20 and Rai finished a pass from sophomore Crew Cintron at 7:30 to pull within 11-8. The Big Red took a 12-8 lead at the 4:44 mark, but Spence scored his third goal with 3:45 remaining and fourth with 36 seconds on the clock. Freshman Joel Trucksess won the ensuing faceoff, but his shot was wide as the 12-10 score proved to be the final.

Lehigh finished with a 32-23 edge in shots and 39-30 advantage in groundballs. Freshman James Spence made three saves in the first 37:30 before being relieved by sophomore Colin Kirst who made two stops. Caelahn Bullen had 10 saves for Cornell.

"I think there were a lot of positives today for sure," said Cassese. "We did a lot of things well. We'll build on that and we'll figure out how to do the things we didn't do well better."

The Mountain Hawks wrap up the regular season next Friday when they return to Patriot League play at No. 11/12 Bucknell. Opening faceoff is set for 7:30 p.m.

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