Princeton Stunned By Cornell On Goal With 1.6 Seconds To Go

Sunday, March 17

Princeton, N.J.

2:00 PM

Princeton University

4-3, 0-1,Ivy

Cornell

4-2, 1-0,Ivy

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
Cornell	4	4	4	3	15
Princeton	2	6	4	2	14

Tucker Wade had four goals in Princeton's 15-14 loss to Cornell.

Princeton Stunned By Cornell On Goal With 1.6 Seconds To Go

March 17, 2024 | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score

The game was tied at the half, at the end of the third quarter and now in the final minute — and never mind how it got here. This was going to be another one-goal Princeton-Cornell men's lacrosse game, the fifth in the last seven meetings between the teams, and that meant someone was going to get a big early season Ivy League win and someone else was going to be left to dwell on how it got away.

Unfortunately for Princeton, it was the one who turned out to be the latter.

Defenseman Matt Dooley picked up a loose ball after a turnover and sprinted to the Princeton goal, beating the clock by 1.6 seconds and giving Cornell a thrilling 15-14 win over the Tigers in front of 2,008 at Sherrerd Field. Princeton possessed the ball for the final minute looking for the game-winner before the turnover sent the ball the other way and ultimately Princeton shocked.

That the game would be close at the end hardly seemed likely after Cornell used a 7-0 run to take an 8-2 lead midway through the second quarter. Or when Princeton answered with a 10-0 run of its own, first tying it at 8-8 at the break and then sprinting out to a 12-8 lead four minutes into the third.

Cornell came back with another run, tying it at 12-12 at the end of the third. Princeton answered with two more, 14-12 Tigers midway through the fourth, but, fittingly for this day, the game ended with another run, this one 3-0 by the Big Red, punctuated by Dooley's game-winner.

Princeton got 14 goals on the day, 11 of which came from the offensive midfield, led by freshman Tucker Wade, who continued his breakout trajectory with four goals. Fellow middies Chad Palumbo and Sean Cameron added three each, and John Dunphey had one. The other three came from face-off man Andrew McMeekin, who also was 18 for 31 with 13 ground balls and two caused turnovers, and attackmen Coulter Mackesy and Nate Kabiri.

Michael Bath had four more caused turnovers, giving him 10 in the last two games.

Princeton dropped its Ivy opener a year ago in overtime to Penn and then came back to win the Ivy League tournament and reach the NCAA tournament for the second straight year. Next up for the Tigers is a trip to Harvard for a game this coming Saturday at noon.