NEW HAVEN, Conn. – In a battle that last year would have determined who finished last in the Ivy League, Cornell and Yale were fighting this year for first place. Advantage: Cornell.

 

The Big Red struck twice in the first half and then played phenomenal team defense for the second half as it knocked off the homestanding Bulldogs 2-0 to take sole possession of first place in the Ivy League.

 

Cornell (8-1-3, 3-0 Ivy League) is now on a four-game winning streak and an 11-game unbeaten run unseen in Ithaca since November 1995. The Big Red earned their first win against the Bulldogs (6-5-1, 2-1) since 2006 and start the Ivy League season at 3-0 for the first time in 16 years.

 

About the only thing that went wrong for the Big Red came in the game's first 90 seconds when Jimmy Lannon committed back-to-back hard fouls and was given a yellow card.

 

But the senior midfielder and team captain didn't let that stop him from making big plays the rest of the afternoon. In the 20th minute, Lannon connected with fellow senior Will Ogden, who immediately found Tyler Regan streaking down the right side of the field. Regan, who had just subbed into the game 34 seconds earlier, had open grass in front of him and notched Cornell's first goal left of Yale keeper Bobby Thalman. The score was Regan's second of the year.

 

Daniel Haber earned his seventh goal this season just six minutes later, again thanks to Lannon's footwork. Lannon found Haber in front of the net, and the sophomore went near post with his shot to extend the Big Red's lead to 2-0. Haber's goal came quickly after he was subbed into the game as well, with only 2:23 elapsing between his entering the contest and his goal.

 

From there, the defense took over. The back line of Peter Chodas, Patrick Slogic, Kyle Parsons and Jake Rinow was stellar as usual, not allowing many shots to get through to keeper Rick Pflasterer.

 

At the end of the contest, the Bulldogs had taken 10 shots but only four on goal. Pflasterer was equal to all four as he earned his six shutout of the year and the team got its seventh. Cornell has now gone the last 237 minutes without giving up a goal.

 

Cornell is seven games above .500 for the first time since November 1996, and coach Jaro Zawislan's career record is three games over .500 for the first time ever.

 

The Ivy League-leading Big Red come back to East Hill on Saturday facing Brown for the annual Break the Berman Record game at 3:30 p.m. Fans are encouraged to come out to break the attendance record at Berman Field, which stands at 961 from last season’s Bream the Berman Record contest. The first 250 Cornell students will get free T-shirts, and proceeds from the game will go toward the Lace Up 4 Pediatric Cancer Awareness Campaign.