Next up for the top-ranked men’s lacrosse team is a home game against the Fairfield Stags and a shot at history. The game starts at 4 p.m. as Penn State looks to move from 7-0 to 8-0 on the season. An 8-0 start to this season would be the best start in program history and would allow the Nittany Lions to remain one of the five undefeated teams in the nation.

The Fairfield Stags sit at 2-4 on the season at this point. This record can be deceiving though — as they’ve played a number of tough teams away from their home field in the front end of their schedule. Despite playing some talented teams like Yale and Stony Brook, the team took both games down to the wire, but eventually lost. The team especially looked good in its loss against Yale as it erased a six-goal deficit and took the Bulldogs to two overtime periods.

The Stags will likely trust their young players in Colin Burke, Travis Ford, and Dylan Beckwith to lead their offense. This game against the Lions will be Fairfield’s final game of four consecutive road contests. Coach Jeff Tambroni is 1-0 in his coaching career when taking on the Stags.

The now No. 2 Nittany Lions could make history with this game against the Stags. They’re gunning for to have the best start in Penn State lacrosse history with a win on Friday. The only other team to have started off the season 7-0 in program history did so back in 1992. Penn State’s offense has been really firing on all cylinders in the early portion of this season — and plenty of that has to do with freshman Mac O’Keefe, who’s on pace to set records at Penn State with his 29 goals in just the first seven games of the season.

Penn State’s offense as a whole is really clicking too as it’s the best statistically shooting team in the country as of March 15. Led by three stellar attackers in O’Keefe, sophomore Grant Ament, and senior Nick Aponte, Penn State ranks in the top three in scoring offense, points per game, and assists per game throughout the nation. Additionally, faceoff specialist Gerard Arceri — another freshman player who has stepped up as of late — was just named the Big Ten Specialist of the Week.

There’s a good chance Aponte increases his point streak to 40 straight games and O’Keefe scores another hat trick — riding his recent wave of offensive momentum. We’ll say Penn State wins this one 14-10.