Lacrosse season starts soon

Hard to believe as it may seem, the first lacrosse scrimmage is this coming Sunday (Feb 5) at noon against Colgate in Ithaca. The following Saturday (Feb 11), they'll scrimmage defending NCAA champ Johns Hopkins at 1pm, also in Ithaca. The season opens February 25 at Schoellkopf against Binghamton.

Just noticed that the Syracuse game, to be played at Schoellkopf on April 11, will be televised on CSTV. In typical CSTV fashion, I get a "server error" when I click on the link to their "complete lacrosse schedule," so I can't confirm it will be broadcast live (7pm). Won't matter for me, as I'll be flying to Las Vegas then.

Edit: Just found the press release page on CSTV and the game will be shown live, both on television and streamed on the web at CSTV.com. I think this means Cornell Some-Access will be showing the "real" broadcast as well.

[www.cstv.com]

Al DeFlorio
The following Saturday (Feb 11), they'll scrimmage defending NCAA champ Johns Hopkins at 1pm, also in Ithaca.

That's too bad. Any other week and I'd go, but I will be in Canton on the 11th for obvious reasons .

I hope someone will go to the Hopkins scrimmage this weekend and post observations. Wish I could be there.

Hillel Hoffmann
I hope someone will go to the Hopkins scrimmage this weekend and post observations. Wish I could be there.

I didn't get over to watch but spoke with someone who was there. The person I spoke with said it was definitely played as a scrimmage - everyone played for both teams, lots of different combinations - so people should take the "result" for what scrimmage scores are worth. CU 16, JHU 8 (or someone else had it CU 14, JHU 7). Someone who was there will have to fill in specifics, but it seems the Red must have done a lot of good things today.

Some comments from a CNY-er and a JHU fan on LaxPower:

cnylax06 wrote:
Cornell beat Hopkins today at Cornell "unofficial" score was 18-6. Hopkins looked slow (could have been the weather) but did not show any speed or dominating offensive skill nor the defensive killer instinct it had last year. The defense was cooked many times by Cornell and the goal play was suspect at best. I know this is a early season game and everyone starts slow but WOW the defending champs looked very tentative and meek today. I feel sorry for the boys on the long ride home to MD.


Cnylax's analysis is right on the money. Cornell was simply the better team today, dominating time of possession, hustling all over the place and just making the plays. Hopkins was definitely flat, slow all day and way too many unforced errors. Slides were late and the d-middies had a rough day. Cornell dominated the time of possession and really capitalized on that; Hopkins defense played well but left too much on Schwartzman's shoulders. The offense didn't do him any favors, either a turnover or unforced errors would give the ball right back. I had a final of 16-7 Cornell, Cornell blew it open in the second quarter with a 6-0 run to close the half 10-5. After that it was all downhill for the Hop.
Hopkins went with Pinto, Zerrlaut and Drennan as the close D. Interestingly, the freshman Evans ran ssdm and had a long day. He looked alot better in the 2nd half after he calmed down. He didn't show any of that speed he has been noted for, but then nobody on Hopkins had any zip today. Koesterer got a lot of time on midfield, especially with g.peyser and rabil. S.Peyser played alot as well, as did Stanwick. Rabil was ineffective today, still a presence but didn't have any points.
Attack was very interesting, as Byrne did not dress. Petro went with Huntley, Duerr and Doneger to start. Dabrowski came in on man-down and started the 2nd quarter in place of Doneger. Duerr played basically the whole game at attack. Offense was still initiated from up top by a middie, usually a Peyser or Rabil. Dabrowski is very interesting as he gives them an inverted presence, much like when he was in high school. They also inverted with Huntley and the freshman Miller in the second half. The ride on attack looked great, getting two garbage goals, but that was the lone bright spot. The offense was very stagnant, but they didn't have too many chances.
Alot of freshman played in the 4th quarter, especially Christopher, Bryan and Walker. The freshman that got significant minutes were Drennan (starter at close), Duerr (starter at attack), Evans and Miller. Miller had flashes of greatness, especially a great rocket shot on the run in the second quarter. But he had some turnovers and looked lost on defense when he got stuck in there. Drennan started the game slow, came off early for some injury and went back in but never seemed to establish himself.
To sum this up, Cornell came out and took it to Hopkins, enough said. After that 6-0 run in the 2nd they never looked back. My hat's off to Cornell. I don't know if it was the weather, the travel, the field or what but the Jays were totally out of it. Cornell certainly took advantage of it. What was really disturbing as a Jays fan was the number of unforced errors and just a plain failure to execute. The clearing game was awful at times, either throwing it away or not getting it into the box. Simply put, the Jays looked lost out there. Hopefully this will be a wake up call. Sorry but I didn't keep any stats or notes for Cornell.

The season opener is tomorrow afternoon at 1 p.m. against Binghamton at Schoellkopf.

Admission's still free for students. This year.

I'll be posting a season preview later this evening or tomorrow morning.