Forget Cincinnati. There's a new Big Red Machine in town.
Cornell outshot, outsmarted and outplayed the Quakers to a 20-5 scoreline Saturday in Ithaca, N.Y.
Penn (4-4, 1-2 Ivy) knew it had an uphill climb against the No. 1-ranked Big Red (7-0, 2-0).
"They're going to score seven or eight goals on you no matter what," Quakers coach Brian Voelker said. "You have to play near perfectly to beat them."
In the opening minutes, it looked as if Penn was going to hang tough against Cornell and try to pull off its third upset in four years.
Senior attacker Alex Salihi opened up the scoring by tallying his tenth goal of the year for the Red and Blue.
But the score did more than put the Quakers up on the scoreboard - it gave the team, who before facing Cornell had lost three of its last four, a much-needed mental lift.
"You get that first goal, and you think you could hang with them," said Penn attacker Casey O'Rourke.
That lift was short-lived, though. Cornell's Max Seibald evened things up less than three minutes later with the first of his three goals.
Of the few good things Voelker had to say on Saturday, most were reserved for Seibald.
"Seibald is as athletic and talented as anyone in the country," he said. "He made some goals that not many people are going to do anything about."
From there on out, it was all Cornell. They scored four more consecutive goals, but a late second-half score by O'Rourke made the line a respectable 5-2 at halftime.
Senior captain David Cornbrooks said that "for the most part, the first half was very even."
But his coach felt that while the score may have been close, Cornell was bound to break through some time.
"Three or four of their goals in the first half came directly off our mistakes - either a failed clear, turnover or just a complete breakdown, and they'd be one-on-one with our goalie," Voelker said. "To be honest, the game was probably closer than it should've been."
He added that Cornell's quick second-half start - where it scored three goals in less than three minutes - demoralized his team.
"It looked like we thought it was over," he said. "In the past, when we got down, our guys would step up, but part of it is the fact that Cornell is so good."
Cornbrooks tried to convey a positive message to his teammates. He said they "have to put things into perspective. It was the number-one team in the country."
Voelker found it difficult to find a silver lining though, calling the performance "bad."
"I'm embarrassed after watching the film," he said. "It makes it look like I'm not doing a very good job coaching."
