VeryRustyRed wrote: ↑Tue Jul 18, 2023 5:09 pm
On a recent rainy Maine weekend, I had the pleasure (for the most part) of watching the tape of one of the most memorable Cornell lax games I've attended - the 2007 semis vs. Duke. Some great memories, except for the last 3+ seconds. Cornell came in undefeated at 15-0, and was shafted with a #4 seed, with Duke the #1.
It's hard to compare different generations across sports in general, but this may have been the strongest Cornell team in the post-Moran era:
Attack: David (Moose) Mitchell, Eric Pittard, and Henry Bartlett + Chris Finn
Mids: Siebold, John Glynn, and Brian Clayton + Casey Mitchell, Rocco Romero, and John Espy
-Matt McMonagle in Goal
-An absolutely outstanding defense of Mitch Belisle, Ethan Vedder, Matt Moyer, Nick Gradinger, Danny Nathan, and George Calvert
The game was played with the temperature and humidity both in the 90's, at the hottest time of day, the second game of the semis, the first being a snoozer between Hopkins and Delaware. Quint K had one of the best extemporaneous broadcasting lines in the first minute when two Duke players converged on Max S while he was clearing in front of the sub box (a Duke player came out and leveled Max with a blind, high hit); QK says "38 seconds have gone by and there's already been more action than in the entire first game").
-Given the heat, Coach T played lots of players --- Mike Corbolotti and Christian Pastirik who rarely received PT during the season, both scored in Cornell's comeback, down 10-3 late in the 3rd. Cornell finally tied the game at 11-11 when Clayton score in transition with 17 seconds left. Duke's players were cramping and the goalie and defense were in disarray. I remember telling my son at the time, "we're going to steal this one."
-The (great) John Glynn had a terrific day facing off (Siebold and Schmicker both took a few) and dominated Duke's FOGO. Something I noticed on tape that I didn't see live (from a lousy seat in the corner at M & T) was that Glynn who was beating Molinari to the clamp, seemed to hesitate on the clamp (?-exhausted, lost concentration), resulting in a scramble and a Duke possession...and score by Zack Greer (with Danny Nathan draped over him) in a totally unsettled situation. A very sudden, unexpected ending to what looked at the time, given the total momentum shift, an inevitable Cornell win.
***I highly recommend watching it - if it's available on YouTube (I own a video). One thing that really stands out to me was that despite the absence of a shot clock, much of the game was end to end, lots of transition, despite tremendous heat.
Finlay Thomson (@MimicoJrALax)