Box Score The Canisius College men's lacrosse team played a tight contest with nationally-ranked Cornell, but in the end the eighth-ranked Big Red prevailed, 9-6. Cornell improves to 2-0 on the season, while the Griffs drop to 0-2.
"It was great to be in the game with the eighth-ranked team in the country but it is disappointing that we did not come out on top," said Canisius head coach Randy Mearns. "When we focus on how we can play and when everybody buys in, we have shown that we can compete against the higher-level teams in the country. There were some mistakes that cost us some goals but there was a lot of heart and determination out there today."
Junior Adam Jones led the Griffs with four points on the afternoon, recording a hat trick and adding one assist. The junior also led the Griffs with five ground balls and three caused turnovers.
Seniors Mike Benzinger and Matt Barkas plus sophomore Jon Domres rounded out the scoring for Canisius with a goal each.
Sophomore Sean Callahan recorded a career-best 12 saves in his second collegiate start to anchor the Canisius defense.
The first quarter saw the two teams combine to record 11 turnovers and just two goals, both by Cornell. The Big Red grabbed the early advantage when Chris Ritchie scored with 6:21 left in the period and Ryan Hurley followed two minutes later.
The Griffs responded in the second quarter with a three-goal run to take a 3-2 lead. Benzinger netted the Griffs' first goal of the afternoon 1:42 into the period and then Jones tallied the next two scores 13 seconds apart for Canisius' first lead of the game.
Cornell answered with a three-goal run of its own to close out the first half of play. Ritchie ignited the run with his second goal of the day and Hurley and Roy Lang added scores to give the Big Red a 5-3 intermission lead.
The Big Red extended its advantage to four with a pair of goals 50 seconds apart for a 7-3 lead. Barkas responded just 13 seconds later off a feed from Jones to pull the Griffs back to within three, 7-4, after three quarters of play.
After a Cornell goal to start the final quarter, Canisius answered with two-straight tallies. Domres netted his first score of the season off a rebound and Jones completed his hat trick off a feed from sophomore Jimmy Haney to pull the Griffs within two, 8-6, with 9:54 remaining in regulation.
Canisius had an opportunity to cut its deficit when the Big Red was called for a one-minute slashing penalty with 8:49 left in the game. However, the Cornell defense would clamp down and Lang scored his second goal of the day to seal the 9-6 victory.
"I'm proud of the guys for the way we played today," Mearns said. "We need to continue to improve on the little things and we will be successful. This is the expectation for us now on how good we can be."
The Big Red held a slight advantage in shots, 30-26, and picked up 31 ground balls to Canisius' 26. The teams combined to commit 39 total turnovers, 26 of which were unforced.
Rob Pannell and Hurley led the Big Red with four points each. AJ Fiore stopped nine Canisius shots to earn the victory in goal.
The Griffs return to action on March 13 with a road contest at Denver.
Game Notes: The meeting was the seventh between the two schools and the first in Buffalo ... The three-goal scoring margin was easily the closest in the series, topping a 10-goal difference in 1997 and 2009 ... Jones is now eight points shy of becoming the 15th player in the program's history to record 100 career points ... Jones has netted a goal in 18-straight games, the third-longest streak by a midfielder in the country ... Domres' two career goals have come in each of the Griffs' last two home games ... Barkas, a defender with the Griffs, scored his sixth career goal.
