Coming off a scare against Albany in the season opener, No. 5 Cornell will fly out west to face the No. 17 Denver Pioneers.
On Saturday, Cornell (1-0) struggled to find the groove that it lived in last year, eking out an 11-10 win over Albany. Although Albany is a talented, hardworking team, the result was not what the Red were looking for to start its national title defense.
“They gave us all we could handle,” said head coach Connor Buczek ’15 MBA ’17. “[Albany] played a really good game, just proud of the resilience and toughness to finish, but certainly a little sloppier than we would hope.”
The main issue for Cornell were turnovers, with the Red coughing up the ball 22 times.
“Some of it was early season stuff and sticks not being as sharp as we’d like them to be, some of it was a little bit of the yips and just first game jitters, and I think some of it was just decision making that we’ve got to clean up and situational awareness,” Buczek said.
But, the Red will need to take the win and run with it, as it faces a strong opponent in Denver (3-0). Denver opened the season by thrashing Cleveland State and Air Force by a combined score of 30-3. Last weekend, the Pioneers pulled out an 8-7 win over Utah, scoring three straight goals and holding Utah scoreless in the fourth quarter to secure another victory.
“I think they play really well together and they’re creating some havoc on the ride. It’s a very good team top to bottom. When you’ve got a goalie backstopping that’s playing as well as he is [and] you’ve got some veteran experience on the offensive end. [These are] certainly things that can help propel you to wins,” Buczek said.
Cornell will need to be much more secure with the ball against the gritty Denver defense, and may look to score more in transition this week — something that it did not do much against Albany — to avoid playing against a settled Denver defense.
An additional factor will be the altitude in the Mile High City. Cornell only played two midfield lines against Albany, which could tire quickly in the thin air. However Buczek says that this will not drastically change the game plan.
“I don’t think much changes [when playing in an altitude like Denver’s],” Buczek said. “I think the altitude, though a real thing, affects you more on an individualized basis than the overall.”.
Cornell and Denver have faced off in each of the past two seasons, with Denver taking a 17-16 home win in 2024 by scoring five man-up goals. However, Cornell returned the favor last year, winning 15-5 at Schoellkopf.
In terms of personnel, Cornell will hope to see the return of junior midfielder AJ Nikolic against Denver. Although Buczek stressed his importance to the team before the season, he was in street clothes for the game against Albany, and is currently day-to-day with an injury.
Senior attackman Matthew Perfetto is slated to start again on Saturday, despite logging no points in last week’s contest. Perfetto mostly distributed the ball, not taking one-on-one dodges like junior attackmen Ryan Goldstein and Willem Firth.
“[Perfetto is] a veteran guy that brings a lot of experience and does all the right things,” Buczek said. “I thought he did a nice job and complements [Goldstein and Firth] nicely.”
The game will take place at the Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium in Denver at 2 p.m. EST. Coverage will be provided by Midco Sports.
