Courtesy: Hartford Athletic Communications
ITHACA, N.Y. – The University of Hartford men’s lacrosse team ended its story book season with a 12-5 loss to the second-seeded Cornell Big Red (14-2) on Saturday evening under the lights of Schoellkopf Field in the first round of NCAA Tournament action. The Hawks, who reached the Big Dance this season for the first time in program history, finished 11-7 overall, the best mark since 2000.
Hartford raced ahead early taking a 3-1 lead just 127 after opening face-off before going ice cold for more than two quarters. The Hawks’ did not have an answer for the Big Red's potent attack which rattled off six-straight to close out the half with an 8-3 advantage. Cornell continued to build up its lead in the third with three more unanswered goals to go up seven goals.
Junior Carter Bender scored twice to lead the Hawks while Tim Fallon, Aidan Genik and Martin Bowes rounded out the scoring with one goal apiece. Scott Bement, a junior, rejected a game-best 16 shots. For the Big Red, senior attackman David Lau netted four goals and added an assist. Rob Pannell tallied four points on two goals and two assists and Steve Mock finished with three points.
The first three goals were netted within a 13 second span as Bowes got provided the opening goal when he hit the lower left corner of the net from just seven yards out just over one minute into the game. Pannell provided the answer for Cornell out of the ensuing face-off just seven seconds later after to even the score at 1-1 with 13:44 remaining.
Six seconds later, Fallon came out of the circle with a win and went coast-to-coast, finding the back of the net for the fourth time this season while helping the Hawks regain the lead. Bender delivered the fourth score of the contest at 12:53 to push his team’s lead to two goals before Cornell ran away with the game, rallying for nine unanswered tallies over a span of 42 minutes to take a commanding 10-3 advantage.
Genik snapped the scoring drought for Hartford with 58 seconds remaining in the third quarter as he delivered an unassisted score to cut Cornell’s lead to six. The Big Red sealed the game in the fourth as Lau and Mock reached the back of the net at 11:06 and 8:44 before Bender rounded out the scoring with less than five minutes remaining to bring the score to 12-5, the eventual final.
Cornell dominated in the shots column, taking 20 more than its counterparts (44-24). The Big Red also controlled the ground ball battle at 44-33 and converted on two of six man-up opportunities. Led by Fallon, who finished with a game-best eight ground balls, the Hawks held a slight edge at the X, winning 11-of-21.
The Hawks lose seven seniors from the 2011 squad to graduation. Tim Fallon, Conor Flynn, Nick Frigenti, Dan Gillespie, Sean King, Brendan Marlow and Vinny Pellizzi amassed 17 wins in a Hartford uniform and led the squad to its first-ever America East Tournament championship.