Score: No. 3 Cornell 17, UAlbany 16
Location: Schoellkopf Field in Ithaca, N.Y.
Records: UAlbany 1-2, Cornell 3-0
Short story: No. 3 Cornell's goal with 14 seconds to play allowed the Big Red to survive a furious fourth-quarter comeback from the University at Albany men's lacrosse team and win, 17-16, on Saturday in Ithaca, N.Y.
Key stats
Recap
The University at Albany men's lacrosse team stormed back from a five-goal deficit in the fourth quarter before falling just short against No. 3 Cornell, 17-16, on Saturday, March 2, in Ithaca, N.Y.
Connor Fletcher's goal with 14 seconds left was the decisive score, but only after the Great Danes had erased a 16-11 Cornell lead and tied the game on Jack Burgmaster's goal with 1:13 to play.
UAlbany nearly got its second victory over a Top 5 team in as many years -- and in almost identical fashion. Last season, the Great Danes rallied to beat No. 2 Maryland, 11-10, after outscoring the Terrapins, 5-0, in the fourth quarter.
“We just kept competing,” said Scott Marr, UAlbany's head coach. “That's all we talked about it. It's still early in the season for this young group, and I'm proud as heck of the effort.”
Jakob Patterson (three goals, three assists) led the Great Danes' offense. Kyle Casey (two goals, two assists) and Sean Eccles (three goals) also were among the key contributors on a blustery, snowy afternoon at Schoellkopf field. Six different Great Danes had multi-goal games.
Cornell appeared to be in control when it scored its fourth straight goal to go up by five with 14:27 left. Instead, UAlbany battled back.
Noah Taylor got the comeback started with 9:38 to play, and Casey, Davis Diamond and Eccles all followed with goals of their own. The tying goal came from Jack Burgmaster, who intercepted a pass on the UAlbany side of the field, then raced to the cage to even the score at 16.
The Great Danes more than held their own against a team ranked No. 3 in both major national polls. UAlbany outshot Cornell 44-37, Austin Jones won 25 of 37 faceoffs, and UAlbany scored three man-up goals. The Great Danes also won the ground-ball battle, 42-29.
But Cornell's seven-goal third-quarter left the Great Danes needing a comeback.
“We got behind the 8-ball a little bit early in that third quarter, but we didn't stop playing,” Marr said.
UAlbany had rallied earlier in the game as well. The Great Danes trailed 8-7 at halftime after falling behind, then bouncing back to tie the game four separate times. UAlbany fell behind 1-0, 4-2, 5-4 and 6-5 but kept fighting back thanks in large part to Patterson and Eccles, who scored twice each in the first half.
Alex Burgmaster gave the Great Danes their only lead of the game, 7-6, when he fired a shot from about 12 yards away into the top half of the net with 5:55 left in the half.
But Cornell scored the final two goals of the period.
“We didn't stop all game,” Marr said. “We played right to the last second. We just talked about competing and executing. We have to work on the execution a little bit, but I thought we competed really well.”
