Penn State men’s lacrosse (1-3) and St. Joe’s (2-1) played a tight match in Philadelphia Saturday, and it led to a 15-13 Hawks win.

The Nittany Lions had a nice two-goal lead heading into halftime, but they gave it all away during an awful third quarter. They attempted a comeback, but the Nittany Lions fell short in the end.

How It Happened

Penn State’s defense didn’t have a great start to the game and allowed a goal from St. Joe’s midfielder Tucker Brown within the first minute of the game.

The game continued to go back and forth for a while to make the score 2-2. Penn State’s goals were scored by Will Peden and Jack Kelly.

St. Joe’s took the lead back after a Penn State turnover and it capitalized on a goal from Jack Bohmer, his second of the game.

Shortly after that, the Nittany Lions were able to take their first lead of the game when Peden made a great cross-crease pass to Jeb Brenfleck, who made the shot to the score 4-3.

After a little bit of downtime, Penn State caused a massive turnover and senior attackman Jack Traynor nailed a buzzer beater to end the first quarter, which gave the Nittany Lions a 5-3 lead.

After a great ground ball by LSM Pup Buono, Brenfleck scored another goal for Penn State to give it a 6-3 lead. Brenfleck then scored two minutes later and secured an early hat trick to make the score 7-3.

Penn State had a man down and was able to clear it after a great pass by Brayden Peck to Traynor, which allowed the team to kill the penalty. However, St. Joe’s was able to score 3 unanswered goals.

The goal-scorers for the Redhawks were Bohmer, Brown, and Colin Reich.

Penn State coach Jeff Tambroni called a much-needed timeout and right after, Kelly was able to burry his second goal of the game and the last goal of the half, creating a 8-6 Penn State lead at halftime.

The Nittany Lions came out of the second very flat and allowed the Hawks to score three straight goals within five minutes. It took until 6:08 in the third quarter, but Penn State was finally able to get a goal by Traynor. Shortly after, Bohmer scored his 5th goal of the game to get the Hawks back on the board.

The Hawks totally dominated the third quarter. They outscored the Nittany Lions 7-1, making the overall score 13-9. The only positive was that Penn State was able to get a stop at the very end of the quarter.

The fourth quarter started in a less than ideal way for the Nittany Lions. St. Joe’s was able to score 13 seconds in off of a Mac McLaughlin goal. Penn State was able to stop the bleeding a little bit when Traynor and Peden finally buried a couple for the Nittany Lions making it a 14-11 game.

After changing the momentum, Penn State’s defense let up and allowed another Bohmer goal to give the Hawks a 15-12 lead. Mark Sickler scored the last goal of the game for Penn State, making the final score 15-13.

Takeaways

• Penn State’s rough third quarter could have very well cost it the game. The Nittany Lions came out very slow in the third quarter and got outscored 7-1 in just those 15 minutes. It was because they had their backs against the wall on defense, and when the offense got the ball, it could not get settled.
• Will Peden and Jack Traynor are very good lacrosse players. Both of them were able to make insane effort plays throughout the game, and both have their names all over the scoring sheet. Traynor had 7 points, while Peden had 4 points.
• The Nittany Lions need to pick up more ground balls. St. Joe’s had 11 more ground balls than Penn State, and those extra possessions matter and usually end up helping you win lacrosse games.

What’s Next

The Nittany Lions will face Yale at 12 p.m. on Saturday, February 26, at home in Panzer Stadium.