Stickmen Stop Cornell

"I thought we would beat the Crimson if we held them to just six goals," was the comment of Cornell Coach Robert L. Cullen on the varsity's 6-3 victory over the Big Red Saturday. Only amazing defensive play by Charlie Kessler, Al Straus, Dave Grannis and Henry Field kept Cullen's wishful thinking from becoming reality.

While Crimson attackmen and midfielders dropped passes, threw wildly, and missed ground balls, Coach Bruce Munro's stellar defensemen supplied the margin of victory by reducing the Big Red's running game to an unimpressive crawl. Kessler's body blocking along with the stick handling and speed of Grannis, Field and Straus held Cornell to a single goal through the first three periods of play.

Pete Sieglaff scored first for the Crimson at 3:07 of the opening period by flipping his own deflected shot past Cornell goalie Bob DiGiovanni. After a Cornell tally, Lou Williams and Tink Gunnoe added first period scores to give the varsity a 3-1 lead.

The Crimson attack produced only three goals in the last two periods as Cornell changed goalies in the second period.

Lack of Crimson scoring can be explained in part by the unfamiliar offensive pattern used by Munro against Cornell. Munro adopted a new attack that looked "ragged but potentially good" Saturday. The new pattern eliminates the customary crease attackman positioned in front of the nets in favor of a passing offense ringing the goal.

The new system should take greater advantage of the dodging abilities of attackmen Grady Watts, Woody Spruance, and Lou Williams when it is perfected. Munro promised that "by the time we hit Brown Wednesday the new offense will be a lot better."