On Saturday afternoon, the men’s lacrosse team (3-3, 0-1 Ivy) suffered an 18-9 loss against No. 16 Cornell (4-2, 1-0 Ivy) in Ithaca. The contest was both teams’ first Ivy League conference game of the season, and following the defeat, Brown dropped to No. 5 in the Ivy standings.
“Honestly, I thought we struggled in the first half and were able to respond and find answers in the second,” Head Coach Jon Torpey wrote in an email to The Herald. “Unfortunately, against a great opponent you can’t give up 12 goals in a half and play non-complementary lacrosse.”
After midfielder Henry Brayer ’27 lost the opening faceoff for Brown, the Big Red immediately began threatening to score. Cornell’s forwards made a series of passes circling the net. Less than a minute in, Cornell’s Ryan Waldman attempted the first shot of the game, but the ball streaked wide.
Despite the initial fumble, Cornell dominated over the Bears. Once the Big Red snatched the ball up from the turf and reset play, Cornell’s Willem Firth found himself with the ball. Bolting from behind the Bears’ net, Firth slammed the ball in from out wide, marking the first goal of the afternoon.
Things got worse for the Bears — after Bruno conceded two more goals, attacker Brady O’Kane ’28 was penalized for playing with illegal equipment, giving the Big Red a one-minute power play. Cornell took advantage of this time and nabbed two more goals, putting Brown at a 5-0 deficit going into the second quarter.
“We struggled early due to a massive discrepancy in possessions,” midfielder Ben Scandone ’26 wrote in an email to The Herald. The possession deficit led to the ball being near the Brown goal “far more than we would like,” Scandone added.
At the start of the second quarter, Brown was determined to get on the board. While Cornell won the faceoff, the Bears’ defense stood strong. Brown forced a charging Waldman’s charging shot wide and pressured Cornell into overshooting a pass, opening up the chance for attacker Jameson Steele ’29 to steal the ball.
Brown bided their time, unwilling to concede the ball after their struggles to acquire it. Stationed right in front of the net, attacker Jeremy Hopsicker ’26 received a pass from Scandone. Without missing a beat, Hopsicker slammed the ball into the goal and reduced Bruno’s deficit to four.
“I thought we got a really good game out of Jeremy Hopsicker, Baden Brown (’29) and Jameson Steele,” Torpey wrote. “All three were able to find the back of the net several times and give us a great presence in the ride.”
Unable to build on their goal’s momentum, the Bears would remain scoreless for the rest of the quarter. In a repeat of the previous quarter, the Big Red increased their lead drastically, bagging six consecutive goals. As the game barreled toward half-time, the Bears faced a daunting ten-point deficit as they trailed Cornell 11-1.
But Cornell wasn’t done yet. After the Big Red cleared the ball with just three seconds left, Cornell’s Brendan Straub sent the ball hurtling into the net to take his team’s advantage to 12-1.
“Cornell absolutely dominated us at the faceoff X and their possession time in the first half was upwards of 70%,” Torpey wrote. “We gave away some clears, missed ground balls and put ourselves in the penalty box several times.”
“We never really stacked possessions on offense until the 3rd quarter,” he added.
Coming out of the locker room, Brown demonstrated their eagerness to fight back. Less than two minutes into the quarter, Cornell’s Matt Dooley was penalized for interference, giving the Bears an extra man opportunity. The Brown forwards nimbly passed around the offensive zone until Steele found a chance to bounce the ball into the back of the net, giving Brown their second goal.
After one Big Red goal, Brown added four consecutive goals to their total — including both a goal and assist from Steele. But in a repeat of the previous quarter, Cornell delivered a disheartening blow right as time ran out. The Big Red traveled across the entire field in the span of seconds, and Firth snuck a shot past Brown goalie Connor Foley ’27, bringing the score to 14-6.
“Our success in the third quarter shows the potential of this team when we are playing at our best, but it was too little too late to change the outcome of the game,” Scandone noted. “We simply did not play our best lacrosse on Saturday.”
The final quarter saw Cornell rack up four consecutive goals in the first five minutes, bringing their lead to a staggering 18-6.
After four precious minutes ticked off the clock, Hopsicker, Brown and Steele each brought in goals, but the Big Red’s advantage proved insurmountable.
In the last four minutes of the game, despite sensing that a loss was imminent, Brown continued to apply offensive pressure, adding seven more shot attempts, including three in the last 60 seconds. But the Big Red’s defense stood strong, and the final score rested at 18-9 to Cornell.
“It’s cliche but we just have to continue to grow as individuals and in our schemes,” Torpey wrote.
The Bears will look to break their two-game losing streak against University of Massachusetts at Lowell (2-4, 0-1 America East) this Tuesday at home.
“There is nothing but confidence and optimism in the locker room that we will bounce back quickly from this loss,” Scandone wrote.
Rahul Sameer is a staff writer from Singapore. He plans to concentrate in Applied Mathematics. In his free time, he plays tennis and Mahjong.
