No. 3 Cornell Defeats No. 2 Duke, 11-7

Tuesday, March 21

Durham, N.C.

3:00 p.m.

Duke University

Cornell

No. 3 Cornell Defeats No. 2 Duke, 11-7

3/21/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse

By: Duke Sports Information

David Mitchell and Eric Pittard scored three goals apiece and third-ranked Cornell outscored second-ranked Duke 5-1 in the final period as the Big Red posted an 11-7 victory over the Blue Devils on a cold afternoon in Durham, N.C.

Cornell improves to 5-0 on the year while Duke falls to 6-2.

The Big Red controlled the action in the opening quarter, outshooting the Blue Devils by a 15-2 margin to claim a 2-1 advantage. Mitchell's unassisted goal at the 13:59 mark got Cornell on the scoreboard before Matt Zash's extra man tally from Dan Flannery knotted the game just over one minute later. With 5:46 left in the period, Max Seibald scored for a 2-1 Big Red lead. The second quarter featured Duke on the offensive end for the majority of the time as the Blue Devils fired 13 shots in the period compared to just three for Cornell. The offensive pressure yielded a pair of goals by Zack Greer as the Blue Devils took a 3-2 lead into intermission.

Cornell enjoyed the first half of the third quarter, erasing the one-goal halftime deficit and claiming a 5-3 lead on goals from Casey Lewis, Mitchell and Seibald. On the face-off following Seibald's goal, Duke's Brad Ross won the draw and darted in for a goal to pull the Blue Devils to within 5-4 with 8:37 on the clock. Just 20 seconds later, however, Joe Boulukos scored off a feed from Pittard to push the margin back to two goals. Duke closed the quarter with a pair of tallies as Zash and Dan Flannery each found the back of the net, and the two teams went to the final 15 minutes knotted at 6-6.

Mitchell tallied his third goal of the day at the 12:42 mark of the fourth quarter, giving the Big Red the lead for good. After Pittard scored with 10:52 remaining, Duke got within one goal for the final time when Kyle Dowd scored at the 10:19 mark. Cornell responded with three goals in less than two minutes, with Pittard's tally from Derek Haswell at the 7:19 mark accounting for the final margin.

For Duke, Greer and Zash each finished with two goals while Flannery had one goal and one assist. In addition to his third quarter goal, Ross won eight-of-14 draws and scooped up a team-high six ground balls. In goal, Dan Loftus was credited for 11 saves.

Pittard's five total points paced the Big Red while Matt McMonagle logged 10 saves to lead the defensive unit.

Duke remains at home to take on sixth-ranked Georgetown on Saturday at 1 p.m. while Cornell opens Ivy League play by hosting Yale on Saturday at 12 noon.