Hanover
Saturday, the Big Red left with another victory by the same score, and it’s difficult to ascertain if the Big Green is headed for better things or is simply spinning its wheels in the Ivy League basement.
If possible, this latest loss to the boys from Ithaca, N.Y., was worse than its predecessor. At least in 2014, Cornell was the country’s second-ranked team. The squad that invaded Scully-Fahey Field this time was an uncharacteristic 3-4 overall and 0-2 in league play, but the Big Red got better in a hurry while dropping Dartmouth to 1-8 and 0-2.
“Cornell played really well today with a week to prepare for us,” said second-year Dartmouth coach Brendan Callahan, whose troops have lost their last four games by a combined 62-28. “They just crushed us in the possession battle today, and they were bigger, faster and stronger to every ground ball.”
The Big Green’s goals came from Richie Loftus, Jack Korzelius and Evan Key. The latter had a pair of tallies. Sixteen Cornell players had at least one point.
Team statistics were nightmarish for the hosts, who were outshot, 51-21, won eight of 27 faceoffs, successfully cleared 14 of 24 times and lost the ground-ball battle, 49-23. Cornell deployed a successful 10-man ride during Dartmouth’s clearing attempts, similar to a full-court press in basketball, and it gave the Big Green the yips.
“It was tough to get anything going on either end with them getting so many extra possessions,” said Dartmouth attackman Wiley Osborne, who had two assists.
Dartmouth was scoreless in three man-advantage opportunities, and freshman goaltender Joe Balaban allowed 15 goals in 32 minutes before being replaced by senior Blair Friedensohn, who had lost his three-year starting position after last weekend’s 18-8 loss at Harvard.
Cornell scored from sharp angles, on wrap-around drives, under the crossbar and with worm-burners along the turf. Several times, its tic-tac-toe passing drew oohs and ahhs from fans on both sides of the bleachers, who saw a contest conducted primarily in the Dartmouth end.
Balaban didn’t play well, but he also didn’t get much help. After making 19 saves during a 15-9 loss at Vermont last week, the rookie couldn’t recapture the magic and Callahan had little choice but to toss Friedensohn back into the rout. The struggles in the cage have to be particularly galling for a coach who was once an All-American netminder at Stony Brook (N.Y.) University.
“Whoever’s going to make stops, we’re going to play them,” Callahan said. “But we need to step up and make more saves.”
Dartmouth’s steps have mostly been down in recent years. The program hasn’t posted a winning record since 2006, appears headed for last place in the Ivies for the fifth time in the last six seasons and fielded a team Saturday that was startling in its lack of size, athleticism and skill compared to its opponent.
The Ivy League is arguably the country’s best men’s lacrosse circuit but will that be a consolation by the time No. 1 Yale is finished with the Big Green next Saturday? Or when the season concludes at No. 3 Brown?
“Year two is the toughest,” Callahan said of rebuilding efforts, something he was a part of as the defensive coordinator at Lehigh. “The excitement of a change is over and reality is stating to set in that this is the way things are going to be, even if they were done differently in the past. There’s always some resistance to that.
“We’ve got a ways to go, that’s what the score today tells me. I certainly feel like we’re moving forward but that hasn’t shown through in the results of our games.”
Notes: Callahan on his team’s freshman players: “They’re raw but athletic. It’s going to take a few years to get their skills up.” … After notching the first victory in program history against Dartmouth on March 22, the New Jersey Institute of Technology has lost its last two games to fall to 1-11 this spring and 1-23 since joining the Division I ranks last season. … The Big Green is well represented on the Israeli national team roster for an upcoming pair of games in New York. The team includes Dartmouth graduates Ari Sussman, Adam Fishman, Adam Hull and Andrew Pollack. Friedensohn, Dartmouth’s current goaltender, has competed for Israel in the past, and his father, Peter, a former Big Green player, has coached for the country on the women’s side. … Bill Wilson, Dartmouth’s head coach from 2004-09, is in his sixth season as an assistant at Air Force, which is 9-2. Wilson was named the top assistant coach in NCAA Division I last season by the U.S. Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association. The Falcons earned their first NCAA tournament bid since 1988.
Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com or 603-727-3227.