No. 3 men’s lacrosse (4-1) made the trip south to No. 14 Richmond (3-2) and escaped with a 12-11 victory over the Spiders.
Richmond opened the scoring one minute into the game but were answered quickly by senior attackman CJ Kirst on a tough angle shot. Richmond responded by rattling off five straight goals to end the first quarter with the Red in a daunting 6-1 deficit.
The Red immediately got to work closing the gap in the second quarter, with sophomore attackman Ryan Goldstein firing a shot in from atop the crease less than 30 seconds into the quarter. Junior faceoff Jack Cascadden won the ensuing faceoff and went straight to the cage, scoring on a bouncing shot.
Senior midfielder Hugh Kelleher found the next goal, dodging from the top of the box, beating his man, and cutting the Richmond lead to two. This marked just the third goal of the season for Kelleher.
Richmond and Cornell traded pairs of goals, the Cornell tallies coming from senior midfielder Andrew Dalton and Goldstein. With six seconds to go in the half, Kirst scored again while left open right on top of the crease. This late goal cut the Richmond lead to 8-7 going into the locker room.
Cornell tied the game up to start the second half, with sophomore attackman Willem Firth tucking a shot around the Spiders goalkeeper from a tough angle. Richmond shut down the Cornell offense for the remainder of the quarter and scored two goals of its own, along with another tally to open the fourth quarter and bring its lead back up to three.
The Red started its late-game rally with senior attackman Michael Long. The five-year starter for the Red has seen his career riddled with injuries and is now adjusting to playing on the wing after four years of primarily playing from behind the net, replaced at the X by Goldstein.
Kirst, dodging from the X, tripped his defender up, sending him to the ground and allowing Kirst to dive to the net and score. Adding on to the Cornell run, Kelleher picked up a ground ball and worked through traffic, scoring the tying goal.
With under three minutes left in play, Long dodged from his familiar position behind the cage, beat his man with speed and ripped the game-winning goal.
The final horn blew with Cornell ahead 12-11, securing its fourth straight victory. The game was evidently clean with no penalties called on either team.
Cascadden had a great day at the faceoff dot, winning 16 of 23 draws for a 70 percent win percentage. Freshman Micheal Melkonian, who took sophomore Sam Ricci’s position as the backup faceoff for the day, won 3 of 4.
Senior Wyatt Knust settled into the game after a shaky start, saving 14 of the 25 Richmond shots on goal, good for a 56 percent save percentage.
While Kirst and Goldstein led the Red in points with four apiece, Long scored two big goals, including the game winner. Kelleher also netted two, while Dalton and Firth took a goal and an assist.
The Red will return home to Schoellkopf Field where it will face Penn State on Saturday, March 8, at noon.
Coverage will be available on ESPN+.
