ITHACA, N.Y. – Army junior Brooks Korvin scored three goals, but it was No. 8 Cornell holding on for a 9-8 victory, Saturday, over the No. 16 Black Knights.
Senior midfielders Kevin LoRusso and Roy Ragusa each tallied a goal and an assist, while senior goalkeeper Adam Fullerton made 12 saves, as Army fell to 2-2 this season.
Army jumped out to an early 2-0 lad midway through the first half thanks to goals by LoRusso and senior attackman Justin Bokmeyer, but three straight tallies gave the Big Red a 3-2 lead.
Korvin scored his first goal of the game when he collected a rebound off a save and slipped it past the Cornell goalie to make it 3-3 at the 8:17 mark of the second quarter.
The Big Red would take a 6-3 advantage with just under four minutes to play after three unanswered goals.
Army cut the lead to two goals as the clock wound down in the first half when Rob McCallion sent a pass from behind the net to Korvin, who converted from 15-yards out, to send the Black Knight’s into the intermission trailing, 6-4.
Cornell would score early in the second half for a 7-4 lead before two unanswered goals by senior Midfielder Paul Wigdzinski and junior attackman Jason Peyer completed the scoring in the third quarter and made it a one-goal game as Cornell entered the final stanza with a 7-6 lead.
Neither team found the back of the net for the first 10 minutes of the fourth quarter but Cornell’s Max Seibald broke the stalemate when he drove down the left side and ripped a shot from eight yards out past Fullerton to make it an 8-6 game with 4:46 to play.
With 2:22 left in the contest, the Big Red regained possession of the ball and began the process of running out the clock. Army countered by pulling Fullerton out of the goal to double-team. With the open goal, Cornell took a chance as Seibald drove to the cage but his shot was stopped by Fullerton, who had raced back to the net and made a dramatic save with his body. The rebound bounced Cornell’s way, however, and the Big Red netted an empty net goal for what would proved to be the game-winner.
Cornell held a 38-27 shot advantage, including a 21-16 edge in shots on goal. The Big Red also won 15 of 21 faceoffs, while winning the ground ball battle, 36-24.
Army heads to Dallas, Texas, to take on Rutgers next Saturday (March 15) at Texas Stadium. Game time is set for 4:00 EST.
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