PHILADELPHIA, PA 3/24/2012 – The University of Pennsylvania Men’s Lacrosse team outplayed the #4 Cornell Big Red for three-quarters, but mistakes and a surge by the Big Red ended Penn’s chance for an upset. The Big Red scored 7 straight goals in the fourth quarter to take home a 16 – 11 win at Franklin Field. Penn needed to play a full 60 minutes to beat the Big Red, but did not accomplish that aim.
“We were up 11 – 8, then they made a run,” said Murphy. “Our defense wasn’t great. We were out of character in the we fouled some. We said after three to keep playing offense and defense, but we didn’t do that. We turned the ball over, and that was a credit to Cornell and the pressure they applied, and us not being as composed as we need to be in those situations.”
The Red and Blue played well in the fist 45 minutes of the game as thy never trailed. At one point the Quakers scored 4 unanswered goals to lead 7 – 2 in the second quarter. Cornell fought back cutting the deficit to 8 – 6 at halftime. Penn retained the lead after three quarters of play by an 11 – 8 score. Cornell got a goal by Midfielder Chris Langton, one of his three on the day, to start the run. Attack Connor English, who also scored three goals, found the net and Langton quickly followed to tie the game at 11 with 8:10 to play.
Penn began making mistakes and Cornell capitalized. Penn turned the ball over which led to a goal by Attack Steve Mock giving Cornell its first lead of the game at 12 – 11 at the 8:10 mark. A one minute penalty to Penn Sophomore Defenseman Anthony Santomo allowed a man-up goal by Cornell Attack Matt Donovan with 7:15 to play. Trailing 15 – 11 Penn committed an offside infraction giving Cornell the ball. Donovan put the ball into an open net for his second of the game to end the scoring.
Penn committed 20 turnovers to 9 for Cornell.
Despite the loss the young Penn team did have the better of the play for a majority of the game. Murphy feels that is a positive they can build upon in learning how to finish games.
“We’re close and can be competitive enough to compete with the best teams in the country,” said Murphy. “We haven’t competed throughout sixty minutes in all of the phases of the game. Even the game we won, we weren’t that complete. We just need to clean up a few things.”
Penn got multiple goal efforts from Senior Midfielder Dan Savage and Senior Midfielder Anthony Adler each scoring three times. Each player added an assist. It was the first career hat trick for Adler. Sophomore Midfielder Zack Losco, Sophomore Defender Alex Blonsky, Senior Midfielder John Conneely, and Junior Attack Rob Fitzpatrick tallied once for the Red and Blue. Cornell got hat tricks from Mock and Langton
The Quakers are 1 – 5 on the season, and are 2 – 0 in Ivy Play. The Red and and Blue travel to Yale on March 31 for their next game.
Written By: Glenn Papazian
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