lead. We knew they were going to make a run. It went from 6-2 to 8-8. We were just scrapping against a team like that that had the momentum going. We just knew every slide counts, every ground ball counts, every save counts. We survived that.
Greg Waller had a huge goal to go up 9-8 and Scott [Bacigalupo] made a couple big saves. We had the ball and were killing a penalty, and somehow they got a turnover, they chucked the ball to the end of the field and it fell out of Scott’s stick and they scored in the final minute. It was pretty unbelievable.
Both teams survived the first overtime. In the second, Andy Moe took off like a rocket from the faceoff and put it in the back of the net. Mike Mariano, in the press conference, said, “I don’t view this as an upset, I view this as the start of a dynasty.”
The core of our team was seniors and sophomores, and the sophomores were probably more talented. We had a good young team coming back.
The ‘92 guys, the guys that were seniors, that was a really special group. They genuinely cared about the Princeton lacrosse program. It was an unselfish group. They started as freshmen and gave up their jobs. It was totally selfless. They just wanted to win. Those guys were the basis for building that culture.”
— as told to Justin Feil 1976
Cornell 16, Maryland 13 (OT) Brown University, Providence, R.I.
Cornell’s starting attack of Mike French, Eamon McEneaney and Jon Levine combined for 262 points during the Big Red’s undefeated march to the national championship in 1976. The title tilt against Maryland was the first time in NCAA tournament history two unbeaten teams met for the championship. Some consider the trio of French, McEneaney and Levine to be the best attack unit in college lacrosse history.
Mike French: We had Jonathan Levine, the Jewish guy. We had Eamon McEneaney, the Irish
guy from Elmont, Long Island. And I was the Canadian guy. We had people that came from different cultures. Levine was a very strong lefty. I would be considered the strong right. We had
a pretty good mix. But we really worked on trying to make sure we could play each other’s positions. That’s where we had the advantage. We used to flip the ball. We used to run around in circles. We used to go up front. Coach [Richie] Moran gave us a lot of latitude. We had the circulation offense we used where everybody would touch the ball. We were fortunate in that we had success and we were allowed to freelance. We all knew each other’s tendencies. I always knew that if I had the chance to give the ball up to my teammate, he would score. I kind of look at the Thompson boys at Albany right now, and they are doing the
same thing. When we knew we were overmatching a team, our idea was to take care of business as soon as possible, so the other guys on the bench could get in. There were a lot of other players on our team that were very good. It made for a better locker room. It was a televised game at Brown [on ABC’s “Wide World of Sports”]. We were
down 7-2 at half. The Maryland guys were chirping. We came back. I often think about being on the other side of that outcome. I know the Maryland guys. I’ve seen them in the decades after. Levine’s twin brother was on that [Maryland] team. It was the first game of its kind. It was an event. There is no question about that game’s importance. I would hate to measure
one versus the other. When Team Canada won in 1978 in that huge upset against Richie’s [U.S.] team with nine of my teammates, that was a big moment. If you ask if there is one thing in playing lacrosse that I would put on the top of Mount Olympus, it would be Cornell’s national championship in 1976. I am 60. In my drawer, I’ve got six championship rings from the NLL, a couple from Canada, the Canadian [world title] one, one from the Hall of Fame. The one ring I would not ever want to lose is my Cornell national championship ring.” — as told to Will Cleveland
A Publication of US Lacrosse May 2014 >> LACROSSE MAGAZINE 55
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