The Buckeyes celebrate after scoring a goal during the Ohio State-Cleveland State game Feb. 12. Ohio State won 17-9. Credit: Zachary Rilley | For the Lantern
No. 5 Ohio State failed to remain unbeaten and fell short of its fifth victory of the season as the Buckeyes lost 14-11 at No. 9 Cornell Saturday.
The Buckeyes (4-1) were looking to stay undefeated as they played their third-consecutive road game and second top-10 game of the year, but Cornell (4-0) had other plans.
Senior faceoff specialist Justin Inacio broke the Buckeyes’ all-time faceoff win record. He now has 620-career faceoff wins, which was previously held by Jake Withers who had 615 faceoff wins from 2014-2017.
Sophomore attackman CJ Kirst led the way with four goals and one assist for the Big Red with fifth-year attackman John Piatelli, who also netted four goals.
Ohio State jumped out to an early 3-0 lead but a run of seven-unanswered goals, keyed by Piatelli’s back-to-back go-ahead scores, allowed Cornell to grab the lead and not look back.
In goal for Cornell was senior goalie Chayse Ierlan, who turned away 11 Buckeye shots and allowed 11 goals.
Cornell beat the Buckeyes where Ohio State was the strongest and that was in faceoffs. Junior faceoff specialist Angelo Petrakis beat out Inacio, who entered as the nation’s best faceoff specialist behind a national-best 77.6 percent win percentage.
Petrakis went 16-29 on faceoffs Saturday. However, Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week senior attackman Jack Myers was just held to one goal.
Attackmen freshman Ed Shean and senior Jason Knox led the way for Ohio State with two goals apiece.
The Buckeyes look to be back in the win column next Saturday as they host No. 7 Notre Dame at Ohio Stadium at 3:30 p.m.
