Lacrosse Team Beaten by Cornell; Attack Ineffective in 7 to 2 Defeat

The varsity lacrosse team put on one of its poorest displays of the season last Saturday as it bowed to Cornell by a 7-1 score on the Business School field. "The attack has never played worse than today," Coach Bruce Munro commented near the end of the game.

Sloppy ball-handling, erratic passing, numerous penalties and a lack of aggressiveness prevented the attackmen from maintaining a pressing offense throughout the game. In fact, only one Crimson goal, Dub Mallonee's third-period thrust after a pass from Jerry Pyle, was the result of a sustained attack on the Cornell goal.

The Big Red's fore-checking made it difficult for the varsity to clear the ball from the defensive zone, in spite of goalie Dick MacKinnon's fine assistance. Once, he carried the ball past the midfield stripe.

The defensemen often passed blindly or tried to run through opposing players, rather than firing crisp passes to the midfielders, as they had done against Holy Cross. Bob Shaunessy, in fact, surprised everyone in the final quarter by plowing through most of the Big Red team like a trailer truck, only to have a shot blocked 15 feet from the cage.

Hard-Charging Offense

The fleet Cornell attackmen relied on a faking, hard-charging offense, as shown by the fact that three of their seven goals were unassisted. The varsity attempted to work the ball deliberately around the crease and find a man free out in front.

Cornell scored twice within the first four minutes of the game and held its 2-0 edge through the end of the first period. After a third Big Red rally at one minute of the second period, midfielder Jerry Cotter split the defense, running diagonally toward the right and hit the near side of the nets to make the score 3 to 1.

Two minutes later, however, Cornell retaliated, as an attackman found the upper right corner of the cage from 20 feet out on the right side. The Red held its lead until halftime, as the Crimson got off very few shots at the goal.

The varsity stormed onto the field at the start of the second half, but its aggressiveness faded after Dub Mallonee's goal made the score 4 to 2. Cornell completed the scoring in the third period with three goals, two of them unassisted and the final a rebound from a shot that hit the left post.

The score remained 7 to 2 throughout the fourth quarter, as the Big Red's speedy midfielders seemed to tire. A Cornell manager remarked that Harvard was the only team that had worn out Cornell during the fourth period, including the fine southern squads the Big Red has faced.

The Freshman lacrosse team fared as badly as the varsity, bowing to Tabor Academy by a score of 8 to 3. It was the Yardlings' second loss in as many games.