Hey Cornell, Remember Us?

How could they forget?

Kyle Fetterly's throat is still sore from the 2009 National Championship which saw the Orange erase a 9-6 Big Red lead late in the fourth quarter and complete their comeback in overtime to win the title.  It was about as soul-crushing a loss as any team has taken in the sport.  That it happened at the hands of their inter-state rivals, a team they wanted to beat desperately to prove just once they were better than them, just put it over the top.

The very next day you can bet Cornell head coach circles April 13th, 2010 on the calendar.

The Orange and Big Red will renew their now-bitter rivalry tonight in Ithaca when No. 2 Syracuse (8-1) takes on No. 9 Cornell (8-2).

The Orange are coming off their beatdown of Princeton and folks still can't stop talking about Tim Desko's through-the-legs goal.  Desko says its was more of a last-ditch maneuver than an attempt to hot dog it.

Goalie John Galloway and attackman Cody Jamieson received some honors for their play in the game.  Jamieson was named Big East Conference offensive player of the week for his five-point effort while Galloway was named to the Big East Honor Roll for making 11 saves and only giving up one goal in 49:40 of play.

Cornell isn't treating the game like some sort of revenge for last May.  At least not outwardly.  For them, they would want to beat Syracuse regardless.

"We don’t need any more motivation than just playing Syracuse," Tambroni said. "Period. There will be no false emotion. Everybody is excited to play Syracuse. It would be so farfetched to try to add anything more to it than that."

Don't tell that to some of the Big Red players, however.

"We’re always excited to play (Syracuse)," Cornell senior attack Ryan Hurley said in a phone interview Friday. "And obviously with the game last year, the rivalry has kind of changed for a while."

Of course, the Big Red still have a lot to prove in general.  Despite their record and ranking, they don't have too many quality wins (Yale is probably their best one).  They inexplicably lost to 3-5 Dartmouth two weeks ago and needed a late score to top 5-4 Harvard last week.  They need a win over Syracuse to prove they're for real.  With Brown and Princeton on the horizon, they need a quality win ASAP.

Coach Desko, for his part, is playing the part of the villainous 80's movie rival head coach perfectly. 

"I’m not worried on my end and I don’t think my team is," he said. "I think Cornell should be worried, because as far as I’m concerned our team came out and looked great (Saturday)."

Brass ones.  Big brass ones.  Get up to speed with CitrusTV's Countdown Preview and be ready at 7pm to unleash...uh...things.