It was all Big Red in Saturday night’s home exhibition game against York University of Toronto, Ont. Cornell received production from new faces and returning starters as they cruised to victory over the Lions. Led by Junior Topher Scott and senior Mark McCutcheon,
Cornell used a five-goal first period to blow the game open, eventually winning by a margin of 11-1.
“That’s what you expect out of your upperclassmen all year long,” said Cornell head coach Mike Schafer. “they have to be the difference-makers.”
Schafer also praised the performance of the rookie skaters.
“I thought all the freshmen got opportunities to get a feel for what the crowd was like. I didn’t think they showed any kind of jitters whatsoever.”
After settling into the flow of their first game of the year, the Big Red scored on five of their first 20 shots. Five different Big Red players tallied goals, with 10 players recording a point in the first stanza. Cornell saw goals from Evan Barlow and Chris Fontas, while Mitch Carefoot, Mark McCutcheon and Topher Scott each notched a goal and an assist.
McCutcheon opened the scoring eight and a half minutes into the game. Down one skater, McCutcheon capitalized on an errant pass from York’s Scoot Boomsma and put a wrist shot in the top left corner of the net.
“You don’t get lucky like that every day,” said McCutcheon. “I don’t even think the goalie knew what was coming.”
“Mark McCutcheon opened the floodgates right away with a goal,” Cornell head coach Mike Schafer added. “The guys were excited to play, and I think that made guys relax a bit, and away we went.”
Four minutes later, Evan Barlow scored on a three-on-one off a Tony Romano pass, and over the following six minutes the Big Red added a goal from Fontas, and power-play goals from Carefoot and Scott.
It was more of the same in the second period as Cornell added three more goals. The Big Red continued to dominate time of possession and neutral-zone play, holding the Lions to only five additional shots on goal. McCutcheon scored on a deflection from a Justin Krueger shot early in the period, while Topher Scott, and Taylor Davenport added goals within a minute of each other towards the end of the second.
Cornell replaced sophomore goalie Troy Davenport with freshman Ben Scrivens midway through the second period; he made 10 saves. Davenport finished the game with 13 saves. Schafer is still unsure about which goaltender will start this Thursday, when the Big Red face off against Robert Morris.
“We’ll get the opportunity to look at some video. I thought Troy made some good saves early on, and Ben faced some five-on-threes. Overall, I think Ben saw a little more action.”
The Lions got on the board midway through the final period with a power-play goal from freshman Kyle Searle. Taking a pass from sophomore Sean Langdon at the point, Searle ripped a slapshot past Scrivens for the Lions’ only goal of the night.
Cornell scored three more times in the third, getting another goal from Topher Scott and late goals from freshman Justin Milo and junior Raymond Sawada. Scott finished the game with two goals and three assists.
“I don’t know the last time I have been part of a game where we scored that many goals,” said Scott. “It feels nice to get the season going on the right foot.”
Nine penalties marked the third period, bringing the total to 12 each for Cornell and York. The Big Red capitalized on six of their power plays and successfully defended two five-on-three situations.
“Overall I thought our intensity was pretty good for practicing for five days,” Schafer said.
The Big Red look to carry that intensity into next weekend when they open their regular season with home games against Robert Morris on Thursday the 26th and RIT on Saturday the 28th.
