Syracuse Upset by Cornell in OT Thriller

By Kerry Bretti 

ITHACA, N.Y.- Cornell upset No. 11 Syracuse on Schoellkopf Field Tuesday night, 10-9. Despite never leading in regulation, the Big Red scored its most important goal in overtime, beating Syracuse for the first time in three seasons. This is Syracuse’s third overtime loss this season.

Syracuse scored the first two goals of the night but never gained more than a two-point lead on the Big Red. Cornell tied the game up five different times. Cornell’s offense was led by Clarke Petterson who had a hat trick for the Big Red. Ryan Matthews, who scored the game winner, ended with two goals and one assist. Kason Tarbell also added a pair of goals for Cornell.

“Tonight we battled all the way until the end,” Cornell Coach Matt Kerwick said. “We made more plays than they did at the finish.”

In overtime, Ben Williams won his 18th faceoff of the night to give Syracuse the first shot on offense. Derek DeJoe took his fifth shot of the night and was expecting a push from behind call after the shot, which he did not receive. When the ball rolled out of bounds Cornell was deemed closest to it, thus gaining possession. Matthews dodged his defender and took a shot on the crease, right past Evan Molloy.

“This team just keeps grinding,” Matthews said.

Despite the loss, Molloy had a good night in goal for the Orange in his second start. He made six saves on 16 shots on goal, including one save at the end of regulation to force overtime. Syracuse cleared successfully eight of eight times.

Williams appeared to be getting back into his groove, winning 18 of 22 faceoffs for the Orange. Domenic Massimilian won three of 18 for Cornell while Grant Mahler won one of three and Matt Schattner lost one of one. William’s wins weren’t enough for the Syracuse offense.

“Ben Williams played a great game,” Syracuse head coach John Desko said. “He gets us the ball in overtime and that’s all we could ask of him. He gave us a lot of possessions. In the other games in overtime we didn’t have the opportunity. The other team was getting the ball off the faceoff and we were forced to play a lot of defense.”

Nick Mariano led the Orange in scoring with four goals. Dylan Donahue added two goals and an assist while Jordan Evans added one goal and two assists. Syracuse shot 40 times, only 22 of them on goal. While the Orange has been pretty successful on man-up opportunities this season, the team was no match for Cornell’s man-down squad. The Orange went 0-4 on extra-man opportunities.

“That could have been the difference in the game,” Desko said. “If one of those could have gone maybe we wouldn’t have gone into overtime.”

Brennan Donville played the entire game between the pipes for Cornell and made 13 saves on 22 shots on goal. This was senior Donville’s first win against Syracuse.

With the win, Cornell improves to 5-5 while Syracuse falls to 6-4.