BINGHAMTON, N.Y. Matt Donovan and Connor Buczek combined for nine goals and the No. 13 Big Red men's lacrosse team scored four of the final goals of the contest to eventually pull away from a pesky Binghamton squad, earning the 17-10 victory this afternoon at the Greater Binghamton Sports Complex. "We knew it would be a battle today," said Matt Kerwick, the Richard M. Moran Head Coach of Lacrosse. "Binghamton is a scrappy team and they're well-coached. We knew they wouldn't quit so we really had to battle to the end." Donovan finished the game with five goals, including three in the first 30 minutes as Cornell took a 6-3 lead into halftime. Buczek tallied four on the day, with a pair coming in the fourth quarter to seal the victory. John Hogan tallied two goals and one assist, while John Hogan and Bradlee Lord chipped in two goals apiece. For the third straight game, the Big Red's face-off unit did an outstanding job with Domenic Massimilian winning 20-of-29 restarts and picking up 10 ground balls, while Chris Cook and Marshall Peters picking up six and four ground balls, respectively. "Our face-off unit has been the key for us in these first few games," said Kerwick. "Dom is playing really well. He's winning a lot of draws himself, but also giving us a chance to battle for 50-50 balls. And our wing play has been great." In goal, Christian Knight posted six saves. Binghamton (0-2) was led by Tucker Nelson (2 goals, 1 assist) and Paul O'Donnell (one goal, two assists) with three points each, while JT Hauck added a pair of goals. In goal, Sam Sanko made six saves and allowed nine goals in the first half, before giving way to Tanner Cosens, who finished with just three saves and allowed eight goals in 26:43. Eric Fischer played the final 3:17 and made one save. Cornell doubled-up the Bearcats in shots (48-21) and ground balls (35-15). The Big Red also held the 27-16 advantage in shots on goal. Cornell converted 1-of-1 man-up chances, while holding Binghamton to a 1-of-5 performance. The Big Red jumped out to a 4-1 lead midway through the first quarter with goals from Donovan, Lord, Buczek and Hogan before consecutive Binghamton goals made it a 4-3 game with 3:30 to go in the quarter. Donovan gave Cornell some breathing room with back-to-back goals just 1:20 apart and Lord scored in the closing moments to make it 7-3 at the first break. Jordan Dowiak scored his first collegiate goal, off a pass from Erik Turner to make it a five goal lead (8-3) early in the second quarter, but the Bearcats closed the half on a 3-1 run, with the lone goal coming from Buczek, to make it 9-6 at half time. Both team's offenses slowed in the third quarter with goals by Donovan and Hogan being answered by a tally from Tyler Deluca, to put Cornell up 11-7 heading into the final stanza. Buczek scored just 1:08 into the final stanza, but less than 40 seconds later Binghamton's Ben Kocis had an answer. Donovan made it a five-goal game (13-8) once more, but again the Bearcats answered almost immediately with a man-up goal from Hauck. That was as good as it would get for Binghamton, as three consecutive midfield goals from Edmonds, Andrew Keith and Buczek put the game out of reach. O'Donnell ended the Cornell run, but Edmonds answered with one final score to account for the 17-10 final. The Big Red travel to the Lone Star State to take on No. 8 Albany at SMU's Ford Field in Dallas, Texas on Saturday, Feb. 28 at 12 p.m. CST. The game is part of the seventh annual Patriots Cup and is expected to attract more than 8,000 spectators with the goal of raising awareness and funds to support the HEADstrong Foundation and Wounded Warrior Project.