The Cornell Big Red (2-1) crushed the UMBC Retreivers (1-2) 16-4 on Saturday at Schoellkopf Field (Cornell, NY) under dark and cloudy skies which more than hinted of rain. Fortunately the weather never got worse than a slight drizzle and the fans never had to break out the rain gear. Leading the way for Cornell offensively was attackman Andy Collins who notched 7 points (4g, 3a) and also recorded his first goal of the season which came off a pass across crease followed by a nice 3 or 4 fake finish to the goal.
As the game got started it was Cornell all the way right from the opening whistle. The game stats tell the same story with Cornell dominating in shots, clears, face-offs, and groundballs. Led by their stingy defense anchored around Pre-Season First Team All-American's Ryan McClay and Justin Cynar, UMBC never got the chances they needed to make this a game. With Cornell coming out of the gates with 4 quick goals in the first period it seemed as if it would take a miracle for UMBC to put something together. UMBC finally answered Cornell's initial first period onslaught with a goal coming at 2:05 into the second off a shot up top from midfielder Scott Steele. Would they make a game out of it? No. Cornell answered right back with a goal of their own from attackman Billy Fort on a feed from behind the cage. Another goal apeice for each team and we were sent into halftime after a rather slow second period. At this point it became clear that the score could be much, much worse for UMBC. Cornell had so many scoring chances that either barely missed the net or were stopped by the outstanding play of UMBC goalie Tim Flanagan.
After the short break Cornell came out fast again in the second half just as they had done in the first with an EMO score 20 seconds into the third period digging the hole even deeper for UMBC. This would be the trend for the second half as UMBC was outscored 10-2. Most of Cornell's goals came off settled situations where they just moved the ball around to find the openings. In the fourth quarter it was apparent that UMBC had given up. Outscored 6-0 in the final 15 minutes of the game, they failed to generate any real chances of their own and the Cornell defense just ate up any attack they could put together.
After the clock expired, my general impressions of this game reveal that not only did Cornell play better on Saturday, they were the better team overall. They should be a real contender this season and should give some strong teams runs for their money. With Ivy League rival Princeton already falling to 0-2 this season things are looking bright for the Big Red.
Cornell vs. Umbc
| Scoring | |
|---|
| Andrew Collins | (4, 3) |
|
| Billy Fort | (2, 2) |
|
| Jp Schalk | (1, 3) |
|
| Justin Redd | (2, 1) |
|
| Ben Spoonhower | (2, 0) |
|
| Sean Greenhalgh | (2, 0) |
|
| Jd Nelson | (0, 1) |
|
| Scott Lee | (0, 1) |
|
| Brandon Hall | (0, 1) |
|
| Galen Beers | (1, 0) |
|
| Frank Sands | (1, 0) |
|
| Ian Rosenberger | (1, 0) |
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