Amidon Scores Five Points In 11-6 Loss to Cornell

Tuesday, April 12

Syracuse, NY

7 p.m.

Syracuse University

#5 Cornell

Josh Amidon registered his first hat trick of the season against Cornell Tuesday.

Photo by: Michael J. Okoniewski

Amidon Scores Five Points In 11-6 Loss to Cornell

4/12/2011 9:56:01 PM | Men's Lacrosse

Score By Period	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Final
Cornell	5	2	3	1	11
Syracuse	1	1	2	2	6
Box Score \| Photos \| Highlights \| Press Conference April 12, 2011 \| Carrier Dome \| Syracuse, N.Y. \| Attendance: 4,776

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Senior midfielder Josh Amidon tied his career high with five points, but it wasn't enough as No. 5 Cornell (9-2) handed top-ranked Syracuse (9-1) its first loss of the season, 11-6, Tuesday, April 12 at the Carrier Dome. The Big Red never trailed in the contest and stopped its four-game series losing streak against the Orange with the victory.

Amidon had a hand in five of the Orange's six goals, scoring three times and assisting on two more. All three of his goals came in the second half. In addition, Syracuse received three points (2g, 1a) from junior Tommy Palasek, who made the first start of his SU career in place of the injured Tim Desko.

As he's done so often, junior Rob Pannell fueled the Cornell attack. The All-American was as good as advertised, finishing with three goals and three assists for a game-high six points. Steve Mock, Roy Lang and Scott Austin each added two goals for the Big Red.

Behind the play of Pannell, Cornell dominated the first quarter and led 5-1 after the first 15 minutes. The Big Red outshot the Orange, 14-3, in the period, and Pannell assisted on three of the visitors' five tallies in the quarter.

In the second quarter, Pannell continued to have the hot hand, this time finding the cage twice himself to widen the Cornell lead to 7-2 at halftime.

In all, Pannell scored or assisted on five of Cornell's seven first-half tallies.

The Orange used several players to defend Pannell, but nothing seemed to work. Senior defenseman John Lade started the game on him, but left early in the first quarter and did not return. Redshirt sophomore David Hamlin, sophomore Brian Megill and senior Joel White all took turns guarding him at various points in the first half.

Syracuse did manage to slow Pannell down in the second half, holding him to one point, but the damage was done.

“They got off to the early lead,” SU head coach John Desko said. “We were kind of finding ourselves out there. They really put a lot of pressure on us defensively and took us out of our game. My hat is off to them. I thought they played very well from one end to the other.”

Facing its largest halftime deficit of the year, the Orange began to creep back into the game in the third quarter. Amidon struck twice in the first five minutes of the period, including a man-up goal, at the 10:42 marks to pull the Orange within three, 7-4. But the Big Red responded with three unassisted goals to take its largest lead, 10-4, with 4:24 left in the third.

Consecutive goals by Palasek and Amidon sliced the Cornell lead to four with eight minutes left in regulation, but Pannell closed the game's scoring with an unassisted goal with 2:45 to play, eliminating any chance of an Orange comeback.

Orange senior goalie John Galloway recorded 10 saves in the game to move into seventh on the SU all-time saves list with 545 career stops. Cornell netminder AJ Fiore totaled eight saves to earn the victory.

The Big Red held a 36-25 advantage in shots for the game and also collected 34 ground balls to 26 for the Orange.

Syracuse returns to BIG EAST play on Saturday, April 16. The Orange will face Providence in the opening game of the New England Lacrosse Classic at 4 p.m. at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass.

Game Notes: White picked up seven ground balls to pass Paul Gait for seventh on SU's career ground ball ledger (243) … Senior Jovan Miller tied his personal best with two assists in the game … Miller has at least two points in seven of SU's 10 games this season … Senior Stephen Keogh finished with a career-best three caused turnovers … The Cornell defense held Keogh without a goal, ending his 14-game goal-scoring streak.