Penn State men’s lacrosse has had a relatively routine start to the 2020 season. Jeff Tambroni’s squad dispatched Lafayette in the opener before traveling to in-state rival Villanova and picking up a 19-10 decision last weekend.

Despite Villanova hovering on the outskirts of the popular Top 20 media polls, the schedule undoubtedly gets tougher for No. 1 Penn State. Tambroni’s side will need to be sharp for the week-in, week-out grind that’ll make up the 2020 season.

After facing off with Saint Joseph’s on Saturday, the Nittany Lions will play only two games against currently-unranked opponents for the rest of their 10-game regular season slate. While the first two games proved to be comfortable for Penn State, sluggish starts have been an issue that could prove costly down the road. According to Tambroni, this is due to the lack of intel on the early season opposition.

“For right now, there isn’t a lot of information on the teams we’re playing,” Tambroni said. “We have really focused on Penn State in both of these games. Other teams have prepared well for Penn State.”

Penn State trailed Lafayette during the first quarter before blowing its opposition out of the water to win 16-9, and Villanova stayed within striking distance during the first 15 minutes of last weekend’s contest before losing 19-10. In both cases, Tambroni was pleased with the quick turnaround.

“I’ve been proud of how the guys have responded into the second quarter,” he said. “Once we’ve gathered some information on how our opponent is playing on the offense and defense end, our guys have responded well with that information.”

Penn State will face its toughest test in the regular season in two weeks, when No. 3 Yale comes to Happy Valley. The game will be a rematch of the 2019 NCAA semifinals, when Penn State watched its title hopes slip away after — you guessed it — a slow start.

Unless Tambroni strays from his current ethos, the Bulldogs won’t get scouted until noon on February 22 when the two titans face off again.

“It is way more valuable for us to see if our guys can respond within the game than focusing on someone all week,” he said.

Despite the slow starts, Penn State’s head coach isn’t concerned about Grant Ament, Mac O’Keefe, and the rest of his top-ranked Nittany Lions pulling it together for a deep run into May.

“I view it as a positive,” Tambroni said. “Once our guys have the information [on the other team], they are doing good things.”