By John Painter
(Ithaca, NY – March 2, 2013) Cornell exploded for eight first-period goals here Saturday and breezed to a 19-3 win over Colgate in an expected battle of top-10 teams.
The host and No. 5-ranked Big Red blanked Colgate 8-0 over the first 15 minutes and never looked back. It was the Raiders’ first scoreless quarter this season and first since Duke shut out Colgate 7-0 in the second period of last year’s NCAA Championship quarterfinal.
“You’ve just got to give all the credit to Cornell,” Raiders head coach Mike Murphy said. “They came out flying. From the get-go, we were on our heels. And a lot of that credit goes to Cornell and the way they played.”
It was 11-0 Big Red before Colgate’s Conor Braddish broke the one-sided drought with a goal just past the midway point of the second quarter. That 11-1 margin stood as the halftime score.
“Since the start of my coaching career, I’ve always been very impressed with the level of intensity that the young men who go here play with,” Murphy said of Cornell. “They really showed that today. If you’re an alum of this place, you should be proud of your team because they play at a different level.”
Cornell’s Steve Mock scored five times and Max Van Bourgondien three, while Rob Pannell, Mike O’Neil and Connor Buczek each tallied a pair. Pannell added five assists for a seven-point afternoon.
Goalie Stands Tall
The Big Red also received a big afternoon from goalie A.J. Fiore, who made 15 saves – many of the point-blank variety – and allowed just two goals over 54-plus minutes of action.
“Their goalie was fantastic,” Murphy said. “He was all over our shooters. We didn’t shoot the ball with any kind of velocity; we were aiming it instead of shooting it.”
Colgate’s other two goals were scored by Matt Clarkson in the third and Ryan Walsh in the fourth. Peter Baum’s streak of 21 consecutive games scoring a goal was snapped, although the senior did add an assist on Clarkson’s marker.
Cornell (3-0) entered the game ranked fifth and seventh nationally in the major polls, while Colgate (3-1) was ninth and 11th.
“We learned that we’ve got to play at a different level,” Murphy said. “You can’t play scared. You can’t be a top-10 or a top-20 team, play the way we did and expect anything less than what we got.
“It’s interesting; we had a really good week of practice and we were prepared. But I’ve got to do a better job.”
Not surprisingly, all statistical categories favored Cornell. Shots were 45-31, ground balls 38-30, faceoffs 16-9, clears 19-18 and extra-man opportunities 3-of-5 to 0-of-2. Colgate committed one more turnover, 19-18.
Raiders freshman goalie Gordon Santry picked up his first loss of the season. He was replaced in net by Conor Murphy after the first quarter.
Good or Bad
“I said to the team that one of two things is going to happen – it’s going to define us in a good way or it’s going to define us in a bad way,” Murphy said. “But the credit goes to Cornell. They forced us into the situations we got ourselves into and we’ve got to learn from it.”
It was the Colgate program’s worst loss since an 18-2 defeat at Hobart in 1992. The Raiders get their chance to begin erasing Saturday’s sores right away with a Tuesday game against, of all teams, Hobart.
Start time in Geneva is 4 p.m.
“We’re going to put this one behind us and move on to Hobart on Tuesday, because we’ve got to,” Murphy said. “We’ve got to lick our wounds, figure out what we need to do better, are we playing the right guys, and go from there.
“Because it’s a quick turnaround and we’ve got a very good Hobart coming at us.”
The Raiders open their home and Patriot League seasons next Saturday against Holy Cross in a 2 p.m. start.
Cornell 19, Colgate 3
Colgate (3-1): Ryan Walsh 1-0, Matt Clarkson 1-0, Conor Braddish 1-0, Peter Baum 0-1.Totals: 3-1.
Cornell (3-0): Steve Mock 5-0, Max Van Bourgondien 3-1, Rob Pannell 2-5, Connor Buczek 2-2, Mike O’Neil 2-1, Dan Lintner 1-1, John Hogan 1-0, Chris Cook 1-0, John Edmonds 1-0, Connor English 1-0, Matt Donovan 0-1, Matt Schattner 0-1. Totals: 19-12.
Saves: Colgate 5 (Conor Murphy); Cornell 15 (A.J. Fiore).
Halftime: Cornell 11-1.