Box Score No. 7 Bulldogs Net 5th Straight Victory
ITHACA, N.Y. – The No. 7 ranked Yale men's lacrosse team opened the 2018 Ivy League season in fine fashion, erasing a two-goal deficit in the second half on the way to a 13-11 win over Cornell at Schoellkopf Field.
Ben Reeves and Jackson Morrill each had 4 goals and an assist for the Bulldogs (5-1, 1-0 Ivy) during an evenly matched contest that went back and forth almost the entire way. The team stats went the way of the Big Red (3-3, 0-1), but the most important numbers were on the scoreboard. The Elis won a fifth straight game by stepping on the gas pedal in the second half, outscoring the home team 8-6.
The Big Red won 17 of the game's 28 faceoffs while using early success to take 1-0 and 2-1 leads. John Daniggelis (2 goals) got Yale's first tally, unassisted, at 8:10 of the first when he faked right and shot low from his left side. Jack Tigh (2 goals) notched the second, taking a shot between two defenders while running away from the goal 18 yards out.
The Elis, who have won 3 straight against the Ithacans, got the lead at 3-2 when Joseph Sessa led Ben Reeves perfectly with a pass. The All-American ran out from behind the net, caught the ball and then sent it back in the other direction. Reeves, who made a great fake shot and pass to set up the fourth goal, had a game-high 8 shots.
Morrill got the last two tallies of the first half and the first of the second for the visitors. He converted a great Reeves pass that gave him an open side of the net from the edge of the crease before running out from behind the goal to bounce one in with 1:42 left to even the score at 5 for the half.
The sophomore from Baltimore enjoyed his best day of the season. Morrill made same move to tie things at 6-6 early in third.
The Big Red, coming off a win over Penn State, got the first multiple-goal (8-6) lead of the game at 10:38. That's when senior Conor Mackie sent a message that the visitors were not warming up the bus. Mackie grabbed the faceoff, scooped the ball and rambled up the middle before bouncing a shot past Christian Knight (11 saves).
Morill scored 3 of Yale's 4 goals during a run that helped the visitors stay with Cornell. He tallied with another run-out from behind the net at 3:56 to knot the score at 8-8.
The Blue got its second lead when Tigh ran through two defenders and fell forward while flicking the ball into the back of the cage. Morrill helped Andy Shay's gang up the lead to a pair by working behind the cage to spot teammates cutting to the goal. He passed to Reeves up top and they had a 10-8 lead. That advantage didn't last long. Cornell fought back with 3 straight and an 11-10 lead in the fourth.
Daniggelis epitomized the Bulldogs' effort today when he notched the most important equalizer. The junior midfielder bounced off multiple defenders and then sent a shot inside the right post with 4:47 left.
Reeve's fourth tally, a bouncer from the right side with 3:28 left, turned out to be the winner. However, the decisive moment of the contest came on defense. Senior defenseman Christopher Keating, who had 4 ground balls and a team-high 3 caused turnovers, picked off a Cornell pass with 1:45 left and allowed the Blue to go into clock mode.
"Everyone was covering their own guy," said Keating, an All-American in 2016. "It looked like he (Cornell player) was looking to feed, and he threw the pass to the middle. I got my stick up high to get a piece of it."
Keating's potential game-saving play enabled the Elis to run out most of the clock. While Reeves did a circuitous 75-yard dash with the ball, he cut inside and put the finishing touch on the victory. When the ball hit the back of the net, the senior attackman gave his best celebratory pose.
"They (Cornell) are a really good team," said Keating. "We knew they could score in bunches if they got on a roll. We just tried to clamp down and get a stop at the end. This was a good win today."
BULLDOG BITES
Sophomore defenseman Aidan Hynes returned to the lineup after missing the first 5 games with an injury… Junior midfielder Brendan Mackie, who injured his leg against Michigan on Feb. 24, had surgery this week and will not be back on the field this spring… After a month of playing on the road, the Bulldogs return to Reese Stadium a week from today to host Princeton in a 1 p.m. game airing live on ESPN3 and the ILN.
THE CRESCENT
Conditions were great for early spring; The game time temperature was 34 and the bright sunshine glistened off the artificial grass. However, the field was surrounded by winter. Ninety percent of the stadium seats and aisles were covered with snow while huge white piles of frozen precipitation formed a barrier on the other side of the field. Schoellkopf Field, nicknamed The Crescent, currently has seating on just one side of the playing surface.
By Steve Conn, Yale Associate AD/ Sports Publicity Director – steven.conn@yale.edu
