FOXBOROUGH – The No. 7/8 Cornell University men's lacrosse team used an 8-1 scoring run in the first half of play, and then held off a late Harvard push, to hold on for an 11-7 victory over the Crimson in the first-ever lacrosse game to be played at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. With the win, the Big Red improves to 8-1 overall and 3-0 in the Ivy League, while Harvard falls to 4-5 overall and 0-2 in the conference.

Ryan Hurley led Cornell with five goals and one assist for six points, while John Glynn chipped in two goals and two assists. Max Seibald found the back of the net twice, while Chris Ritchie and Chris Finn posted one goal and one assist apiece.

Harvard was led by Dean Gibbons' four points (one goal, three assists), while Zach Widbin and Max Motschwiller each tallied two goals.

Cornell held a slim edge in shots (33-32) and ground balls (33-27), but excelled in face-offs and riding. The Big Red won 14-of-22 face-offs, thanks mostly to Tommy Schmicker, who took 12-of-19 restarts. On the ride, Cornell allowed Harvard to clear the ball successfully just 16-of-23 times.

The Big Red also held the Crimson to an 0-for-6 performance on man-up opportunities.

Senior goalie Jake Myers was solid, posting double-digit saves for the third time in the last four games with 10 stops, while Joe Pike made eight saves in the loss.

Cornell held Harvard scoreless for a stretch of 26:42 in the first half and used a crucial 8-1 scoring run to build an insurmountable lead en route to the victory, despite a furious second-half comeback by the Crimson.

"I thought this week in practice these guys really invested, so I don't question the investment they made to come here and compete today," said Head Coach Jeff Tambroni. "Today wasn't a lack of investment or preparation on our guys part, but for whatever reason we just did not maintain focus for 60 minutes. Against teams like Harvard, they've got some young talented guys on offense and a veteran group of defensive players, so they're gonna come back and make you pay for it. The good thing is that we were able to build an early lead."

Harvard got on the board to start the game after a long possession when Gibbons rolled from behind the crease and ran past his defender, who had slipped on the turf, and found Motschwiller right in front of the crease.

Seibald had the answer, tying the game at the 11:36 mark as he drove down the right side of the field and ripped a bounce shot past Pike to knot the game at 1-1.

The Big Red extended the lead to 2-1 just under three minutes later when Glynn threaded a pass 15-yards through the Harvard defense, hitting Hurley just outside the crease.

After a prolonged Cornell possession the Big Red earned its third goal when Hurley used a jump shot to make it a 3-1 game with 2:45 remaining in the first quarter. The goal was set up by a fantastic play from Finn, who temporarily lost the ball, but went down to the ground and despite being hammered by a Crimson defender, scooped it and fed it to Glynn at the top of he box.

With time running down in the first quarter, Pike made a brilliant save after a failed clear left Finn 1-on-1 with the goalie. Despite several hard fakes, Pike hung with the ball and made the point-blank save to keep the Crimson in the game.

Finn got even with Pike thanks to a heads-up play at the start of the second quarter as he picked up a loose ball to save a Big Red turnover at the top of the box and ripped a low-line shot into the lower left corner of the cage to make it a 4-1 advantage.

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2008-04-05