ITHACA, N.Y. – Sophomore attackman Ryan Hurley registered a career-high nine points off five goals and a career-best four assists to lead the No. 5 Cornell men's lacrosse team to a 16-11 victory over Dartmouth this afternoon on Schoellkopf Field. The win is the 650th victory in Big Red men's lacrosse program history. It is also the 14th straight Ivy League win and 11th consecutive victory over the Big Green, as Cornell improves to 9-2 overall and 4-0 in conference play. Dartmouth falls to 4-6 overall and 0-3 in the league.

In addition to Hurley's outstanding game, Max Seibald registered three goals and one assist, while John Glynn added four assists for four points each. Chris Finn and John Espey chipped in three goals each, while Chris Ritchie tallied two goals and Rocco Romero handed out two assists.

Dartmouth was led by Josh Gillam's six goals and Brian Koch's five points off two goals and three assists. Ari Sussman also registered two goals and two assists for the Big Green. The Big Red held the slight advantage in shots, 36-34, but Dartmouth had a rare edge in ground balls, 35-30. Cornell won 17-of-31 face-offs with Tommy Schmicker winning 8-of-13 and Glynn earning 7-of-14 restarts. Glynn also picked up a game-high eight ground balls.

Cornell scored on 4-of-6 extra-man opportunities and held Dartmouth scoreless on two attempts. In goal, Jake Myers had a solid outing with 10 saves to earn the win, while Michael Novosel stopped eight in the loss.

After winning the opening face-off, Dartmouth couldn't capitalize and turned the ball over. Cornell took the ball on the end line and a heads-up play by Andrew MacDonald found Romero streaking towards the goal. The junior midfielder drew the defensive slide and then fed Ritchie on the doorstep to put Cornell up, 1-0 just over one minute into the contest.

The Big Red ran the score to 2-0 at the 12:28 mark when Hurley took the ball on the right wing, dodged past his man and beat Novosel down low. Hurley found the back of the net again just over three minutes later as he took a pass from Seibald in stride, rolled around the goal put Cornell up, 3-0.

Dartmouth got on the board with back-to-back goals from Tim Daniels and Koch to make it a 3-2 game with 4:33 remaining in the first quarter. Daniels was a blast from 15-yards out, while Koch's ball found Myers' stick and barely trickled over the goal line. A great individual effort by Finn restored the momentum to Cornell as he battled through his defender and ripped a shot over Novosel's left shoulder to put the Big Red up, 4-2 at the 3:22 mark.

The two-goal advantage was short-lived, however, as Gillam scored off a pass from Koch to pull the visitors within one. Cornell restored its two-goal advantage with just over one minute to play in the quarter when Glynn sent a pass to Finn and the junior attackman scored a brilliant behind-the-back goal while diving across the mouth of the cage to send the Big Red into the first intermission with the 5-3 lead.

The home team extended its lead to 6-3 just two minutes into the second quarter when Glynn sent a pass to Hurley, who was all alone in front of the net and beat Novosel up high. Espey found the back of the net just three minutes later when he drove down the left side of the crease and whipped a shot from 15 yards out into the lower right hand corner of the goal to make it a 7-3 game with 9:58 to play in the half.

Simultaneous Dartmouth penalties, one for one minute and one for 30 seconds, gave the Big Red a two-man advantage for 30 seconds, but a wide shot gave the ball to Dartmouth. The Big Green, however, could not kill both penalties and before returning to full strength, Seibald ripped a shot from dead-center 15-yards out past Novosel's feet to make it an 8-3 game at the 8:16 mark.

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2008-04-12