ST. PAUL, Minn. – Senior Kyle Jussila became Cornell's new all-time leader for career points Saturday as the Rams came through late on the road to win their Midwest Lacrosse Conference opener against University of Northwestern, 8-7.

Jussila accounted for four goals and one assist, boosting his career points total to 127. He passed A.J. Fisher (124 points, 2016-18) atop the program's career scoring list.

The Rams (4-7, 1-0 MLC) jumped on UNW early, taking a 3-0 lead after the first quarter courtesy of a hat trick by Jussila, who added three ground balls and three caused turnovers for the day.

After the Eagles (1-6, 0-1 MLC) started keying on Jussila, Jackson Kinart and John Linderman came through with two more goals of their own to give Cornell a 5-0 first half lead. Kinart and Linderman went on to combine for five points between the pair.  

Luke Baldwin's goal 15 seconds into the third quarter gave the Rams a 6-3 lead, but UNW struck back with four goals in a row to take the lead with only five minutes remaining.

Linderman made his presence felt all game while firing 11 total shots on net. With under a minute to go, he scored his second goal of the day to tie the game at 7-7 with under five minutes in regulation.  

Cornell took a timeout with two minutes to go following a one minute slashing penalty called against UNW, giving the Rams time to plan for their extra-man opportunity. Starting with the ball in their offensive end, Linderman fired two great shots that just missed. After some impressive ball movement, Jussila scored on a great pass from Ethan Kupka to convert on the extra-man opportunity and take the 8-7 lead with only one minute to play.

Evan Begner was in the net for the full 60 minutes today, gathering 12 total saves and moving to 4-5 on the season. Begner is now at 148 saves on the year, approaching the school mark of 159 saves in a season set by Evan Kedjidjian (2016).  

The Rams continue MLC play Wednesday as they head back to Minnesota to take on North Central University at 7 p.m.