JOSH HERWITT
Josh is CSTV.com's men's basketball editor and writes a weekly national column. E-mail here!
HANOVER, N.H. -- Jeff Tambroni might not be used to it even after six full years in Ithaca, N.Y., but he's starting to know what it feels like to have a target on his back.
And with each win over the course of this season, the Cornell coach realizes that that bulls eye only grows bigger and bigger.
"It seems like there is a target on our backs," Tambroni agreed. "But the bottom line is, you'd rather be the favorites than the underdog. It means you're doing your job and you're doing it well."
So after surviving a scare from in-state rival Syracuse Tuesday night in the Carrier Dome, the Big Red wasn't exactly interested in letting Ivy League foe Dartmouth hang around for very long.
Cornell did just the opposite, stringing together eight consecutive goals in the first half while holding Dartmouth to just two goals after halftime to remain perfect on the season with a 17-3 thrashing Saturday at Scully-Fahey Field.
Things couldn't be going much better for Tambroni, who has seen his team come out on top each week against some of the best teams in the country -- from No. 11 Notre Dame to No. 4 Duke -- after watching them fall in the first round of the NCAA tournament last season to runner-up UMass.
But Tambroni isn't having any thoughts of an undefeated season just yet. In fact, the seventh-year coach doesn't even like to hear the word muttered at all.
"Gosh, no," he remarked when asked about his team's chances of closing out the regular season with a perfect 13-0 mark. "With the hurdle in front of us, we don't see anything. It's like an eclipse right now."
That hurdle that Tambroni speaks of is sixth-ranked Princeton, who the Big Red hosts next Saturday in a critical Ivy League matchup.
"They're larger than life in the Ivy League," Tambroni added. "They've been that team for about 14 or 15 years."
It's clear just from the way Tambroni speaks, with a purpose and an overall sense of confidence, though, that leaves little doubt of what the Big Red are truly capable of accomplishing this year.
So if Tambroni and the Big Red can get by the Tigers in next weekend's highly-anticipated showdown, an undefeated season becomes an even greater possibility that's not at all a long shot anymore for Cornell (10-0, 4-0 Ivy League).
Especially when you have two scoring machines in seniors David Mitchell and Eric Pittard.
The veteran attackmen have done it game after game this season, and against Dartmouth, it was no different for them.
"You're looking at a Cornell team that will throw the ball at any time to Mitchell," Dartmouth coach Bill Wilson said. "They've done it all season long."
Mitchell, along with his scoring mate Pittard, combined for 10 points on eight goals and two assists, finding holes in the Big Green defense and capitalizing on their opportunities in front of the net throughout both halves.
"We just take advantage of the opportunities that the other team gives us," Mitchell said matter-of-factly. "Dartmouth is a tough place to play too, so we had to make sure we came with the right mindset."
Tambroni has confided in an offense that centers on Mitchell and Pittard as two of the best scoring threats in the nation, but he realizes that he'll need more from his senior attackmen next weekend when the Big Red lock horns with Princeton.
"It's great to have that kind of production, but we're going to need a little bit more," the seventh-year coach asserted.
The Big Red didn't exactly come out on fire on the Big Green's turf either.
Signs of fatigue from the Syracuse game were apparent for Cornell in the opening minutes of the game, as defensive penalties and careless passes caused by Dartmouth's pressure in the backfield threw off Tambroni's squad and forced his players to make several bad decisions.
"Playing that kind of game on Tuesday night, you expend a lot of energy," Tambroni explained. "I thought we were a little flat early, but as the game wore on, our guys did enough good things to give ourselves some success."
They certainly did more than enough good in a short span of time.
After Dartmouth (4-5, 1-2) took an early 1-0 lead on Brian Koch's goal just over a minute into the game, Cornell's defense locked down on Dartmouth's attackmen while the Big Red ran off six unanswered goals to finish the first period with a 6-1 advantage.
Pittard proved to be the Big Red's offensive catalyst in the early going, netting three straight goals in a matter of two minutes, including one off a pass from Mitchell with three minutes remaining in the first quarter to extend Cornell's lead to 3-1.
The scoring didn't end there for Cornell, as Mitchell and junior attack John Espey, who finished with two tallies, continued to fire shots past freshman goaltender Michael Novosel.
Novosel collected a game-high 12 saves, but a lethargic defensive rotation proved to be Dartmouth's Achilles heel in the end, as Henry Bartlett's goal with just 27 ticks left in the first half had Cornell riding all the momentum with a 10-2 lead at halftime.
"Any time you play the No. 1 team in the country, there's buzz attached to it," Wilson offered. "We had our opportunities in the first quarter to score three or four goals early, and we didn't hammer them away."
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