Cornell 10 at Princeton 9 lax photos May 1

Here are photos and notes from Cornell's nail-biter 10-9 win over Princeton Saturday (5/1/10) that gave Cornell hosting rights and the first seed in the initial Ivy tournament as opposed to a #4 seed at Princeton had we lost. What won the game for Cornell was the quick early start (4-0 after one) and the hustle and teammwork, especially in the third period where we had another 4-0 quarter to go from 5-3 to 9-3. What almost cost Cornell the game was either Cornell's Memorial Day '09 style inability to stand fast in the final quarter (to our discredit) or Princeton's ability to make a furious late game comeback as it also did against Penn (to their credit).

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Hustle: David Lau #7 putting the hit on the Tigers late in the second. (Okay, he got called for it but Princeton didn't capitalize and if being forceful on D means an occasional 30-second technical, fair enough.)

Below shows the five-minute stretch early in the third quarter when Cornell ran it from 5-3 at the half to 8-3 en route to a 9-3 lead after three. Credit teamwork and hustle at both ends of the field. This is as good as you're going to see Cornell play lacrosse and makes you for a moment say "Max who?" but only a moment.

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Ryan Hurley #26 in the background beats Tylier Fiorito from the same near-impossible angle that UNH used to beat Cornell. (In 2003 in Buffalo in the Frozen Four, but who's still bitter?). 6-3 Cornell.


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Third period following the faceoff: Middie #13 Andrew MacDonald breaks through a two-man Princeton trap at midfield on one of Cornell's 17x17 clears (why couldn't that have been our stat vs. Syracuse last Memorial Day?). Moments later ...


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... freshman attackman Steve Mock #6 takes a feed from Ryan Hurley (2G 2A) to make it 7-3. 58 seconds between goals.


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Third period teamwork: Jason Noble #45 and Chris Langton #13 hound the Princeton offense into a turnover.


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Hustle: Roy Lang #48 at midfield, Princeton's Paul Barnes with the ball (momentarily).


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More hustle: Ball still loose, both players go down ...


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Still more hustle: Lang is the first one back on his feet and chasing down the ball. Cornell controls and moves upfield ...


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... freshman attackman Ross Gillum #43 scores unassisted. 8-3 Cornell, 3 goals in 4:23.


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Cornell celebrates.


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#3 Rob Pannell was a marked man all day including during Cornell's Q3 outburst. Statistically, the #1 scorer in D1 (5.0 ppg) was a non-factor with 0G 1A but on defense he was still ferocious ...


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... with Cornell up 8-3 Pannell harrasses Fiorito. Fiorito gets the pass off ...


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... so Pannell chases after the defender with the ball and this time deflects the cross-field pass. How many people would be hauling ass when you're already destroying the Tigers, there's little more than a quarter left, it's 85 degrees, and humid?


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Hustling walking wounded: Goalie A.J. Fiore, playing with a heavily taped left ankle and hobbling in the second quarter, outruns Princeton to be nearest the shot late in the third to turn possession back to Cornell. I hope Fiore lives in North Campus because I don't see him climbing Libe Slope easily for classes Monday.


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The third period ends with Cornell up 9-3 and A.D. Andy Noel (white slacks, light blue shirt upper middle) and the other Cornell fans on their feet and cheering. To my eye, the crowd of 3133 was pretty evenly split among Cornell and Princeton fans.


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Things looked good for Cornell the first four minutes of the fourth. Cornell didn't score but neither did Princeton. But: Little things went wrong. Cornell won just four second-half faceoffs and lost the ground balls war, 10-6 Princeton in the fourth, 23-15 Princeton for the game.


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10:48 to play, 4th: Princeton cuts the margin to 9-4. Hey, no problem, it's not as if they'll score 5 more goals, and our 9 is a moving target, right?


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40 seconds later: Princeton cuts it to 9-5.


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8:57 to play, Princeton cuts it to 9-6.


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7:44 to play: Princeton cuts the margin to 9-7. 4 goals in 3:04.


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Roy Lang #48 breaks the 4-goal Princeton run a minute later. Cornell 10, Princeton 7, 6:24 to play. That is the fourth goal by a middie Saturday (Lang 2, David Lau 2). Perhaps Cornell read the Quint Kessenich comment on [sports.espn.go.com] where he ranks Cornell #14 and says, "Cornell ... is clearly on the NCAA tournament bubble. ... Cornell's lack of scoring from the midfield has been a season-long storyline." How're your Jays doing this year, Quint?


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4:56 to play, Princeton cuts it to 10-8 on the third goal by Mike Chanenchuck, the Tigers now-highest scoring freshman. Then to 10-9 with 2:56 to play.


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Princeton controls in the final 2 minutes. Fiore makes one of his 3 Q4 saves.


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Cornell clears in the final minute. Roy Lang works the ball along the end line (an end line the fans can actually see, rather than Cornell's garish red "but it looks good on TV" end zone). Princeton pressures Lang ...


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Lang is ruled out of bounds with 24 seconds to play.


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Final 15 seconds: Princeton gets off shots by Jack McBride (14), Chanenchuk (pipe) and Jeff Frocaro (18, wide).


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Cornell chases the final wide shot out of bounds ...


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Time expires. AJ Fiore (47) and Max Feely (33) raise their arms.


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Courtney Baker exults. The announcer congratulates Cornell on winning "a share of the Ivy League title" with the same tone a Junior Leaguer uses when she says "how nice" as a euphemism for "up yours, social climber."

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The drama continues. Cornell conducts a lengthy postgame huddle to the annoyance of Princeton ...


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... the Tigers wait, and wait, until Cornell finally breaks from the huddle ...


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... for the postgame handshake ...


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Big Red players salute the fans who stuck around post-game.


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Sun-drenched scoreboard behind the end Cornell defended in the second and fourth period tells the story: Cornell 10, Princeton 9. 17 of the game's 19 goals are scored against the goalie at this end, facing into the late afternoon (5 pm start, 7:15 finish) sun. Goals scored by quarters attacking this goal (the one to the right watching TV or from the main stands): 4 Cornell, 3 Princeton, 4 Cornell, 6 Princeton. Only 2 goals scored going the other way, both by Cornell.

Now, on to the Ivy playoffs Friday: #1 Cornell vs. #4 Brown, #2 Princeton vs. #3 Yale at Schoellkopf. Will we see a Cornell-Princeton matchup Sunday? Princeton beat Yale by 1, 7-6, back in March. Cornell was uninspired in losing to Brown a week ago.

Thank you, Bill.

Great photos Bill, and thanks for the commentary. I missed watching the game on TV, so it's great to see all these shots you took. At least the sun won't be a factor for the goalies at 8 p.m. Friday!

Nice pics, Bill. Ritchie also had two goals so the middies did very well with six of the ten goals.

Thanks, again.

Great photos! In that sequence with Lang and Paul Barnes, it looks like Lang legally took him down. (Legally being defined as "there was no whistle." This would help explain why Lang was up on his feet so fast. It always helps you prepare to get up if you know you're going down.

Relatively speaking, and out of fairness, Barnes was down so long it probably looked like up to him.

I've been shooting a huge amount of NJ HS lacrosse this spring and I was intrigued by how much easier it is to photograph lax at Cornell's level because there's more action and also there's less milling around in front of the goal. In HS, guys hang out there and you miss photos where the shooter is behind the hangers-on. It may also be in D1 lax the shooter does the time-and-space thing and gets his shot off before the defender arrives.

Even more so, I was blown away by the intensity the Cornell-Princeton players showed, especially, Pannell, Lang, and MacDonald. Also Fiore beating Princeton to an out-of-bounds shot on that heavily taped leg.

I offer no opinion on Lang's stick usage. I focused mostly on Cornell on offense and Cornell on defense and I'm sure Princeton used similar methodology to be competitive; I just don't have photos of that.

I'll never understand how someone can take good action pictures and follow the action at the same time. Really impressive.

dbilmes
Great photos Bill, and thanks for the commentary. I missed watching the game on TV, so it's great to see all these shots you took.

Video highlights, including every goal and the last Princeton missed shot, here: [video.insidelacrosse.com]