STONY BROOK, N.Y. - Cornell scored the first four goals of the game and used a string of six unanswered goals in the fourth quarter to pull away and defeat Army, 14-5, in the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament, Sunday at Stony Brook's Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium.
One week after the Black Knights knocked off two-time defending national champion Syracuse, 9-8, in a double-overtime shocker in the first round, Army (11-6) saw the Big Red take a 4-1 first-quarter lead and an 8-3 lead by halftime that proved to be too big a hole to dig out of.
Cornell (12-5) senior attackman Ryan Hurley, the owner of the nation's third-longest active point streak at 49 games, scored two of his team's first four tallies to help stake the Big Red to the five-goal cushion by halftime. Army looked to mount a comeback, kicking off the second half with a man-up tally by senior attackman Tyler Oates at 9:06, but the Cornell defense held Army scoreless over the next 14 minutes while putting together the decisive six-goal run to advance to the national semifinal for the second straight year and third time since 2007.
Hurley finished with a game-high five points on four goals and one helper to record his eighth hat-trick of the season and 25th of his career.
"First I want to congratulate Cornell on a well-played game. They were outstanding on the ground in gaining possessions," said Army head coach Joe Alberici. "They got the goaltending they needed and did a terrific job of executing. It's pretty disappointing for our guys - I'm at a loss for words after coming out of a pretty emotional locker room. Cornell did the things they had to do in order to win. We just came up short today."
Senior attackman Tyler Seymour led the Black Knights with a goal and assist. Junior attackman Jeremy Boltus, freshman attackman Garrett Thul, and sophomore midfielder Devin Lynch scored one goal apiece, while junior midfielder Rob McCallion added an assist. Junior goalkeeper Tom Palesky was credited with 11 saves in the loss.
"It definitely wasn't our best performance. We got down, but that's nothing new to us," said Boltus, who was held without an assist for only the second time this season. "We rushed things and didn't play within ourselves. We didn't do our best to keep in the game - we took the first shot instead of the best shot and ran into a hot goaltender. Give Cornell credit, their defense played well and they got out in transition and converted."
Following the opening run from Cornell, Boltus got the Black Knights on the board with a rip that found the upper corner from 12 yards out with 2:04 showing in the first quarter.
Hurley helped the Big Red to a 6-1 advantage after registering the assist and tally on Cornell's next two scores. Army answered with two of the game's next three goals however, as McCallion found Lynch in an open space for a blast from 10 yards out that made it 6-2.
Thul, who finished his first season along the banks of the Hudson as Army's most prolific goal- and point-scoring freshman (41 goals, nine assists), bounced his only point of the game at the 3:37 mark of the second stanza. Cornell freshman midfielder Steve Mock, who notched three goals, spun past a defender and scored falling down to give the Big Red an 8-3 cushion at the half.
Oates started the third frame with a tally off of a low-to-high feed from Seymour, but Cornell responded with the definitive run to put the game out of reach. Cornell sophomore attackman Rob Pannell powered the run, scoring all four of his points (two goals, two assists) in the second half.
After a 1-4 start, the Black Knights won 10 of their next 11 games, including a nine-game run that saw Army finish 6-0 in the Patriot League and win its first-ever Patriot League Tournament title with a 11-8 victory over Navy in the championship game. It was also the program's first NCAA Tournament appearance since making three-straight from 2003-05, while the Syracuse win was the first in the NCAA Tournament since 1993.
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