Cornell Takes the Claret Cup for 2012

Cornell travelled to Hamilton, New York to take on cross-state rival Colgate University on Saturday, September 8th. Cornell was fresh off a close defeat and looking for their first win of the season against a strong Colgate side. Colgate’s side, which went 13-0 only to lose in the national tournament last spring, suffered a loss to other Ivy, Yale University 28-0 the week previous. The ensuing match was one to be remembered. A storm swirled in from the west that brought with it two straight hours of rain. With the absence of lightning, the teams were able to compete through the torrential downpour.

Cornell took the first lead ten minutes in with a penalty kick from Junior Captain Benno Sorenson. Players noticed early on that tossing the ball through the tempest proved difficult as the game transformed to a clash of forward play. A fifteen-minute defensive stand followed for the Big Red as their team successfully thwarted Colgate’s efforts break the line. However, Colgate capitalized on a counterattack to take the lead heading into the half after a successful conversion 7-3.

Conditioning, strength, and heart were the tale of the second half when both teams took the field. Cornell was able to convert another early penalty from Benno Sorenson to shorter the lead to one. Both sides battled on, as ball security became an issue and strength in scrums become crucial. Late game substitutions and ailing injuries gave Cornell correct equation it needed to win. In the seventy-third minute, Senior number eight man Alex Ryde had a beautiful spin on the try line to slip past two defenders and to score the go-ahead points. Benno Sorenson drilled the conversion simply through the center to put the Big Red up 13-7. Cornell successfully held off the desperate attempts by Colgate to close and went on to retake the Cornell-Colgate Claret Cup.