Cornell dominates possession, scoreboard

The Penn men’s lacrosse team relearned a critical lesson Saturday afternoon at Franklin Field: you can’t score if you don’t have the ball.

The Quakers struggled to take and maintain possession against No. 6 Cornell and thus could not garner any offensive momentum, as they fell 12-6.

“Cornell does a great job of possessing the ball, both in terms of the length and duration of their own possessions and getting possession of the ball,” Penn coach Mike Murphy said. “Their defense was good, they make you earn everything.”

The possession-related statistics were starkly in favor of the Big Red. Cornell’s Austin Boykin — one of the premier faceoff specialists in the nation — won 14 of his 18 faceoffs, and the Big Red picked up 16 of 22 total.

Penn’s Justin Lynch competed well with Boykins, but it was the wings that made the difference, according to Murphy.

“Their face-off wings … probably swung three or four possessions from our side to their side, which in the end makes a pretty big difference,” he said.

In addition, the Quakers (4-5, 0-2 Ivy) were doubled up on ground balls, losing that battle 34-17.

Sophomore midfielder Dan Savage was the primary offensive highlight for the Red and Blue, scoring three goals. No other Quakers player netted more than one point.

An early Savage goal lowered the deficit to two. Cornell’s Jon Thomson and Penn’s Rob Fitzpatrick then traded scores, but the 7-5 hole would be the closest the Quakers would get.

The Big Red put the game away late, as sophomore attack Scott Austin scored two of the team’s four fourth quarter goals, while Penn could muster only one. Austin led all scorers with four goals; his classmate Rob Pannell chipped in six assists.

With losses to Princeton and Cornell, the Quakers find themselves in an 0-2 hole to begin their conference season. Both of those squads are ranked in the top seven, however, so the players are still confident they can recover and have a successful year.

“Honestly we were excited about [playing the top two Ivy teams early], but I guess it didn’t work out the way we planned,” senior defender Joe Kelly said. “We got four more games ahead of us, and there’s no looking back on those first two, so we’re ready to get the next four down and go 4-2 in the Ivies.”

The Quakers will get their next chance for a first Ivy win Saturday at No. 20 Yale.

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