The University of Pennsylvania (5-3, 2-1 Ivy) rallied from a late deficit to pull off a historic upset over No. 9 Cornell (4-2, 1-1) Saturday evening. But the rest of the Ancient Eight were not so lucky against the nation’s top teams. Saturday evening, No. 3 Syracuse outmatched No. 11 Brown (6-1) on the Bears’ home turf. Earlier that afternoon, Harvard (5-2, 0-1) suffered another loss for the season against No. 16 Denver. A day later, Dartmouth (5-2) received a black eye from the Fighting Irish in Notre Dame, Indiana.
Pennsylvania 10, Cornell 8
Scoring four goals in the final six minutes, the Quakers came back from a late two-point deficit Saturday evening to hold an undefeated (5-0) record at Franklin Field. This was Penn’s first victory over Cornell in six years and the Quakers’ first home victory over the Big Red since 1994.
Trailing 6-8 with 6:13 remaining in the fourth quarter, Quaker midfielder Mark Becker took a pass from attackman Luke Dixson and buried it into the net to spark a Penn four-point run. Less than a minute after Becker’s tally, midfielder P.J. Gilbert hit a big goal to tie the match at 8-8 with 5:10 left to play. Only 26 seconds later, the Quakers scored the go-ahead goal when midfielder Will Phillips found the net for the second time for the afternoon.
Cornell’s leading scorer Sean Greenhalgh, with two goals on the day, shot wide on two attempts to tie the game back up. On the second miss, Penn attackman Zandy Reich picked up the loose ball and went end-to-end before setting up midfielder David Andrzejewski for the coup de grace with only 21 seconds to spare.
Earlier in the evening, Penn attackmen Alex Salihi, James Riordan and midfielder Patrick Rogers each pitched in a goal. Cornell’s Andrew Collins, the second leading scorer in the nation, was held to just one assist for the day.
Quaker goalie Ryan Kelly finished with a career-high 13 saves for the evening.
The win over the Big Red improved Penn to its first three-game winning streak since an 11-day stretch last season.
Brown 6, Syracuse 13
Sophomore Brian Crockett scored six goals Saturday evening to lead Syracuse to victory over Brown at Stevenson Field. The loss was the Bears’ first of the season.
Early in the match, Brown appeared to have the upper hand after building a 4-1 lead in the first eight minutes of the opening quarter on two goals by attackman Chazz Woodson and two by midfielder Chris Mucciolo.
The Orangemen responded with six unanswered goals to take a big 7-4 lead. With 25 seconds left, the Bears were finally able to respond when Mucciolo scored his third goal of the game.
Syracuse then went on to score another set of six unanswered points over the first 22 minutes of the second half to take its biggest lead of the game, 13-5. Bears attackman Rory Hyland scored with 3:52 remaining and neither team converted any more goals afterwards.
Despite the loss, Brown goalie Mike Levin played an impressive game, tallying 17 saves including 11 in the first half.
Harvard 7, Denver 10
Nine different Denver players scored Saturday afternoon in the Mile High City to lead the Pioneers to a win over Harvard.
With 4:19 left in the third quarter, Harvard held a 6-5 lead following attackman Steven Cohen’s conversion from midfielder Jeff Gottschall’s feed.
But the Pioneers followed up with a 4-0 run in the last 3:31 of the third segment to take a 9-6 lead.
Crimson midfielder Jake Samuelson brought Harvard within two on a goal midway into the final quarter. But minutes later Denver’s midfielder Jeff Biggs scored a goal to widen the cushion between the competitors.
After Biggs’ goal, Pioneer goalie Brian Sanders tallied five of his nine saves of the afternoon to prevent the Crimson from making a comeback.
The Cantabs had two extra-man opportunities in the last 2:04, but were unable to get past Sanders down the stretch.
Harvard goalie Jake McKenna finished with 11 saves on the day.
Dartmouth 3, Notre Dame 10
The Fighting Irish snapped Dartmouth’s five-game win streak Sunday afternoon in a one-sided match at Notre Dame, Indiana.
The Big Green fell behind early in the game. Entering the second quarter, Dartmouth had yet to find the net as Notre Dame lead 4-0. Big Green midfielder Brad Heritage finally broke the Dartmouth dry spell when he netted a goal in the second frame, but instead of precipitating a flood of Big Green goals, Heritage’s goal sprouted a series of Dartmouth leaks.
The Big Green remained scoreless for the remainder of the half and for the entire third quarter as Notre Dame tallied up six more goals to take a 10-1 lead midway in the fourth.
Dartmouth midfielder Ben Grinnel and attackman Alex Hufnagel each scored a goal near the end of the game, but could not save their team from an embarrassing afternoon.
Big Green goalie Andrew Goldstein finished the afternoon with 12 saves.