Lacrosse 2012

[ugarte]

At the half here in Hempstead: Cornell 3, Denver 2. Both defenses looking good, West with some good saves as well.

Follow the game here. (Why doesn't CU have something like this?)

3:25 left, tied at 7. Denver will have the ball when they come out of a time out. Cornell keeps taking the lead, Denver keeps tying it up.

[ugarte]

Denver takes the lead just under 3 and wins the faceoff.

[ugarte]

Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii Cornell commits a penalty. 30 second Denver EMO with 1:32 left. Killed... Denver TO, 58 seconds left... Cornell ball, TO, 22 seconds left... GOAL! MOCK with 6 seconds left in regulation!

[Chris '03]

All tied up in Hempstead. OT forthcoming.

[ugarte]

Langdon with the game winner at 2:55. Whew.

[dag14]

Cornell wins it

[ugarte]

Two close wins following the close Virginia loss. This team is a stress test.

[RichH]

Langdon with the game winner at 2:55. Whew.

Most exciting livestats animation I've ever had to watch at the office.  

Gotta love sticking it to Tierney like that.

Huge game from the middies.

[Jordan 04]

Wow, talk about a roller-coaster last 10 posts!

Glad we got the win!

[Ronald '09]

I just got home from the game, and it looks like all of the above posts were people staring at livestats, so I'll post my thoughts on the actual game.  We had a small but pretty spirited Cornell section in the crowd.  There was an even smaller Denver section, which was probably almost exclusively families of players.  Our section seemed to be a combination of players' families and regular fans.

West was our best player today.  He made a ton of huge saves throughout the game.  I think he's not as good as AJ was last year in the clearing game, but his current play in making the saves is a significant upgrade from AJ, at least how he was last year.  That's a tough decision to demote a junior goalie who has started every game the last two seasons, but it seems to be the right decision.

I'm starting to get really worried about faceoffs.  The first few games, Doug was practically automatic, and that carried until around midway through the second quarter of the Virginia game.  Since then, he's barely won any, and McMichael never wins them.  Off the top of my head, I think McMichael was only used on one today.  At least putting Noble in on the faceoff, when he doesn't win, he usually can use the long stick to fight long enough to prevent a rush right on the unsettled.  And he won the most important faceoff of the day.  I think Keith and Lang did a great job on the wings on the faceoffs fighting for some loose balls.

Speaking of Lang, I wish he would be used more offensively.  I guess he's so valuable defensively, DeLuca doesn't want to tire him out.  I would hope that as the season progresses, he will be used more in key situations offensively.  I especially think he would be useful dodging and sniping against teams that play the zone like Virginia.  That was how he opened the scoring in this game.

We need more from the attack.  Almost all of our offense came through the middies today, and that is to be expected with Rob out, but not to this extent.   I thought Donovan showed some abilities to create offense himself from behind the net early in the year and that's been absent the law few games.  I'm not sure if that has to do with the fact we're facing better opponents or that Rob is out, probably a little of both.  He has a ton of talent and hopefully that will come as the season progresses.

Langton, Van Bourgondien, and Gilbane all looked really good, and they powered the offense for what was overall a great win.  The above are my nitpicks, but overall I was very happy with a gutty win over a very good team.  This team certainly doesn't quit.  One final thought is, I wish we could make some use of Sten Jernudd.  Looking at him on the sideline towering over everyone else just makes me think there must be some way that size could contribute on the field.

On to Philly.

[RichH]

West was our best player today.  He made a ton of huge saves throughout the game.  I think he's not as good as AJ was last year in the clearing game, but his current play in making the saves is a significant upgrade from AJ, at least how he was last year.  That's a tough decision to demote a junior goalie who has started every game the last two seasons, but it seems to be the right decision.

Having only seen less than a half so far (end of the UVA game), that's a good report.  Frankly, I want our keepers to make saves first, and worry about the clearing game later.  The way this defense is set up, it's pretty essential that we have a good fundamental keeper back there.  If it's West, great.  If Fiore can contribute to that effort, wonderful.  Just get someone back there making saves.

I'm starting to get really worried about faceoffs.  The first few games, Doug was practically automatic, and that carried until around midway through the second quarter of the Virginia game.  Since then, he's barely won any, and McMichael never wins them.  Off the top of my head, I think McMichael was only used on one today.  At least putting Noble in on the faceoff, when he doesn't win, he usually can use the long stick to fight long enough to prevent a rush right on the unsettled.  And he won the most important faceoff of the day.  I think Keith and Lang did a great job on the wings on the faceoffs fighting for some loose balls.

Looking at the box score, Doug T. was 1-7! After emerging in the NCAAs last year, I thought that was an area we wouldn't have to worry about, and now we do. Yikes.  McMichael was 0-1, so you were spot on.  Stevens was also 0-1, but Noble, so important was 5-10.  Thinking blindly, I'm not surprised a Tierny player is excelling at the X, but their guy is the do-everything Chase Carraro, so it's not like they have a FO specialist.  He was 13-19.  You're going to see skilled guys like that late in the year.

We need more from the attack.  Almost all of our offense came through the middies today, and that is to be expected with Rob out, but not to this extent.

I just have this feeling that this is what DeLuca's gameplan was.  Against UVA, we seemed to rely heavily on the play of Mock and English...maybe DeLuca understands that in order for this team to gel, he needed to challenge the middies to step up. The score was in control, so why not work them?  When it came to "must get a goal," he drew up the play, or told Mock that he was the guy, But I'm very encouraged by the contributions from the middies today.

I'll tell you, with 0:20 left, I kept thinking of the plays drawn up for Seibald and Pannell to win in recent years...don't know what that tying goal looked like, but that's some clutch play from Mock, I imagine.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but it's more encouragement.

This team certainly doesn't quit.

Ding!  I'm filling out my sports cliche Bingo card as we speak!  ::burnout::  Otherwise, great report!  Thanks.

[billhoward]

[clear]
Why is this man smiling? Steve Mock, playing in front of family and friends on Long Island, has broken a nearly-two-game scoring drought with the game-tying goal with :06 left, then fed Chris Langton for the winner 65 seconds into OT for the 9-8 victory over Denver.


[clear]
Andrew West was awesome in goal for Cornell with 12 saves vs. 8 GA. (Denver had 8 saves vs. 9GA.) He and Andy Iles have been working together on this trick save, above.


[clear]
West does not take goals-against calmly, however. This one tied the game at 6.


[clear]
Denver goes up 8-7 with 2:30 to play, controls the faceoff, tries to stall, Cornell red-dogs (does the coaching manual say the odds really favor not going to the net with the goalie out?) and gets the ball back. Roy Lang legs it upfield, Cornell calls time out with half a minute to play. Steve Mock here ties the game with :06 left. If there was a time for Mock to step up and fill Rob Pannell's shoes, this was the time.


[clear]
Denver had Cornell's number on faceoffs: 13 of 19 including 6x7 against Doug Tesoriero. Jason Noble fared better, 5x10. Cute move here by Denver's Chase Carraro to start overtime with a between the legs backwards shovel ... except Cornell's wingman controlled and the ball ultimately wound up in Noble's stick.


[clear]
Overtime: After Cornell gets the ball into the attacking box and calls the obligatory timeout, Max Van Bourgondien (3 goals) takes the ball behind, feeds Mock (#6), who is about to feed Langton (#1).


[clear]
Chris Langton undrapes himself from the Denver defense for the winning shot.


[clear]
Langton celebrates. That's three straight one-goal games: 9-8 OT loss to Virginia, 8-7 win over Yale, 9-8 OT over the Pioneers.



[clear]
Matt Donovan leaps to join the celebration and Cornell parties ...


[clear]
... parties like it's 1971 at Hofstra and Cornell is celebrating a win in the first-ever NCAA championship.

With only a few exceptions (Virginia, 2011 NCAA quarterfinals), Hofstra Stadium has been a friendly place for Cornell lacrosse. I hope Richie Moran was there for this one, too. (So many players are wearing sweats not because it was cold but because some had a premonition how weird the Bill Bradley-style tight shorts would look four decades later.)


Beautiful day for lacrosse. Decent turnout by Cornell fans and parents. Let's hope the offense is coming together. A Syracuse or Princeton or Penn is going to take us down if we don't get more punch from the attack. IIRC correctly Mock's game-tyer was the only goal by the attack unit, which got off 5 of Cornell's 17 SOG. Let's hope Rob Pannell heals in time for the playoffs.


75 more game photos at www.billhoward.phanfare.com/cornellsports

[Jim Hyla]

75 more game photos at www.billhoward.phanfare.com/cornellsports

Great pix, as always Bill, and thanks, as always:-}. You're everywhere, you're everywhere,...

[billhoward]

75 more game photos at www.billhoward.phanfare.com/cornellsports

Great pix, as always Bill, and thanks, as always:-}. You're everywhere, you're everywhere,...

No Cornell pix this weekend, alas. I was hoping for a daily double: Photograph Cornell hockey at Bridgeport and our son's Ultimate team in a tournament at Yale. The seeding gods declared otherwise. Maybe in a future year the NCAA will seed with an eye toward which teams have the most fervent supporters "good of the game"], which would include Cornell in the East and Wisconsin in the Midwest brackets. I'm still in awe of bus after bus after bus of Badger fans arriving at Boston Garden for the NCAA semifinals and, when they lost then but beat Denver (?) in the consolation (long time ago), the fans stood and chanted for the last half of the third period, "Best in the West." Twenty freakin' hours on a bus. (Before Alfred Kahn deregulated air travel costs.)

[jeff '84]

75 more game photos at www.billhoward.phanfare.com/cornellsports

Great pix, as always Bill, and thanks, as always:-}. You're everywhere, you're everywhere,...

No Cornell pix this weekend, alas. I was hoping for a daily double: Photograph Cornell hockey at Bridgeport and our son's Ultimate team in a tournament at Yale. The seeding gods declared otherwise. Maybe in a future year the NCAA will seed with an eye toward which teams have the most fervent supporters "good of the game"], which would include Cornell in the East and Wisconsin in the Midwest brackets. I'm still in awe of bus after bus after bus of Badger fans arriving at Boston Garden for the NCAA semifinals and, when they lost then but beat Denver (?) in the consolation (long time ago), the fans stood and chanted for the last half of the third period, "Best in the West." Twenty freakin' hours on a bus. (Before Alfred Kahn deregulated air travel costs.)

Great pix, thanks Bill.

Stupid hockey east refs at MSG cost you a shot at this daily double!