No. 11 Penn State men’s lacrosse (2-0) beat Villanova (0-1) 15-5 in the Wildcats season opener.

A super slow start for both offenses made for a lot of transition play. Penn State was able to capitalize the most on this and lead at halftime 4-2 thanks to two Matt Traynor goals.

The second half started with Villanova fighting back and tying the game at four a piece. Eventually, the Nittany Lions woke up and scored nine unanswered goals in the third and fourth quarters. The rest of the game was all Penn State, who tried to run as much clock as possible with each touch of the ball. The game ended 15-5.

How It Happened

After a back-and-forth start, the Nittany Lions got on the board first thanks to a Kyle Lehman goal from Jack Aimone.

Following the goal, neither team could find its footing, but after a shot clock violation and a turnover, Villanova tied the game at one with six minutes left in the first quarter.

Penn State retook the lead four minutes later from a transition goal. Kevin Parnham found Traynor who buried that shot. The goal marked Traynor’s 100th career point and ended the first quarter at 2-1.

The second quarter continued the up-and-down play, this time with Villanova finding the back of the net to tie the game at 2-2.

The Nittany Lions responded nearly ten minutes later through Traynor’s second goal and then Ethan Long’s first of the game. With two minutes left in the half, it was just 4-2 Penn State. This would be how the half ended.

The Wildcats opened the scoring in the second half. Matt Licata found space and buried a well-placed shot less than four minutes into the third quarter. Three minutes later, Villanova tied it up at four

The tie did not last long, though, as Ryan DiRocco scored twice and Jack Aimone got his first of the game to give the Nittany Lions a 7-4 lead with under one minute to play in the third quarter.

The subsequent face-off was won by Colby Baldwin, who found Long for a step-down goal with 15 seconds on the clock. Heading into the fourth quarter, Penn State led 8-4.

Penn State stayed hot in the fourth quarter, and with the completion of Traynor’s hat trick, the Nittany Lions took a five-goal lead.

This really opened the floodgates, as four more quick goals from Penn State virtually put the game to bed. With seven minutes to play, the Nittany Lions were up 13-4.

Eventually, the Wildcats stopped the run with a goal from David Link, but 14 seconds later Penn State stopped the celebration when Baldwin scored off the faceoff.

To end the game Hunter Aquino found the back of the net, the impact freshman just keeps producing. The game ended 15-5 for the Nittany Lions.

Takeaways

• With Traynor’s first goal of the game, he surpassed 100 career points for the Nittany Lions. He joins his brother, Jack Traynor, who had 108 in his career. He added three more goals and two assists to end the game at 105 career points.
• Penn State scored 9 unanswered goals in a game that looked like it was going to be low-scoring for a while. This was too much for the Wildcats to come back from and the Nittany Lions cruised to victory in the fourth quarter.
• Jack Fracyon allowed just five goals against with a whopping .667 save percentage. If that continues the Nittany Lions are going to be a tough out for any team in the country.

What’s Next?

Penn State welcomes No. 5 Princeton to Panzer Stadium at 1 p.m. Saturday, February 15. Princeton is yet to play, so it will be the Nittany Lion’s third week in a row facing a team in their season opener.