Notre Dame goalie Scott Rodgers makes one of his season-high 16 saves against the Big Red.

Cornell came into this years’ NCAA tournament having lost 16 seniors last year. No one expected much of them this year and even though they didn’t make it to the Championship game on Memorial Day, the 2010 Big Red lacrosse team have a lot to be proud of.

Going into the game Cornell was prepared to take on Notre Dame senior goalkeeper Scott Rodgers. In a post-game press conference, Rob Pannell said that they thought, “the place to be was back up high” when shooting on Rodgers.

But Rodgers had 16 saves, a season-high. Cornell’s Head Coach Jeff Tambroni added, “coming in here against Rodgers, we didn’t want to be overanalyzing his technique or his size. We just wanted our guys to shoot and shoot confidently when they had the opportunity because of our success in the past few weeks. To his credit he really played well, but I just know that when you take nine shots on cage and only have one goal you’re not going to come out feeling all that good about yourself.”

Taking lots of shots in the first half of a game and going into the break on top can be detrimental to a team’s morale, and even though the Big Red was 0-4 this season when they trailed at the half they did not give up.

With Cornell down three coming entering the third quarter, Ryan Hurley set up a play for Ross Gillum to score which cut the lead to two. But Neal Hicks of Notre Dame answered Gillum.

Notre Dame senior attack Neal Hicks registered four goals during the course of the game, marking a season high for Hicks, and tying his career high.  Hicks is the sixth player in Notre Dame school history to score four or more goals in an NCAA Championship game. 

The end of the third quarter was sloppy on both ends of the field and entering the fourth period Notre Dame held an 8-5 lead. A deficit of just three goals allowed Cornell to still have hope, but near the beginning of the fourth quarter the Fighting Irish’s Steve Murphy, thanks to a superb defensive play, scored to push the lead to four. Senior Ryan Hurley of Cornell was not ready to let his season end and scored with 6 minutes and change left in regulation. Notre Dame called a time out right as the Big Red was gaining back some momentum, again down just 3.

Cornell, in an act of desperation sent goalie AJ Fiore out to try to force the turnover leaving an empty net. The Irish capitalized and scored to make the count 10-6. Andrew Irving of Notre Dame scored soon after and then with just about two minutes left, Grant Krebs added another to double up what had been a three goal game just two minutes earlier.

With one minute left Pannell and Hurley symbolically connected for one final goal, but with a 12-7 win Notre Dame will advance to appear for the first time ever in a National Championship game. Pannell said he “was kind of happy we were able to end that game on the right note with me feeding him for a goal. It felt good to have that happen.”

Cornell had more shots on net, fewer turnovers and won more ground balls, but in the end, they had fewer saves and netted fewer goals. 

Notre Dame Head Coach, Kevin Corrigan, noted in the post-game press conference, “I would have said that if we got the opportunity to make the playoffs we would be a dangerous team. I just thought we had the talent all year; we were just a little inconsistent. I believe in this team and I knew we could do this.”