| Senior Brian Boyle scored a career-high eight points (two goals, six assists) to lead Penn State to a 12-9 win over visiting St. Joseph??s on Senior Night at Jeffrey Field. |
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; April 28, 2007 ?C The Penn State Nittany Lion lacrosse team, under the guidance of veteran head coach Glenn Thiel, rode the strong performance of a number of seniors on Senior Night to post a 12-9 win over visiting St. Joseph??s in non-conference lacrosse action. Senior Brian Boyle (Derry, N.H.), playing in his final home game as a Nittany Lion, had a career-high eight points to lead Penn State.
Boyle had two goals and six assists in the game. The eight points is an individual season high for PSU this year and the six assists are tied for ninth all-time in Penn State history. Max VanArsdale (Rochester, N.Y.) had a trick for Penn State with three goals as well.
St. Joe??s got on the board first when Joe D??Avanzo scored an unassisted goal at the 14:06 mark. But Penn State quickly answered when Gil Pearsall (Carthage, N.Y.) took a Boyle pass and found the back of the net at the 13:24 mark to tie the game at 1-1. St. Joe??s retook the lead off a Matt Harbeson unassisted goal with 12:34 left in the first, giving the Hawks an early 2-1 lead. Five minutes later, Nittany Lion Rob Forster (Jenkintown, Pa.) took a Boyle assist right in front of the goal and tied the game at 2-2 with 7:55 left in the opening stanza.
Senior defender Dan Saltsman (Concord, N.H.), playing in his final home game on Senior Night, scored his first career goal at the 4:10 mark (off another Boyle assist) to give Penn State a 3-2 lead. Hawk Steve Varga tied the game up, taking an Alex Lopes pass and scoring with just 0:13 left in the opening period. The late goal sent the game to the second period tied 1-1.
St. Joseph??s scored the first goal of the second period, taking a 4-3 lead off a Geoff DeSoye goals (and a Steve O??Brien assist). The goal came at the 11:38. But less than a minute later, Boyle took a nice pass from Forster in front of the goal and tied the game at 4-4 with 11:00 left in the first half. VanArsdale gave Penn State a 5-4 lead, off a Matt Radecic (Mission Hills, Kan.) assist, at the 8:39 mark. VanArsdale then gave Penn State??s a two-goal lead, this time off a Pat Heim (Wayne, Pa.) assist, scoring at the 7:19 mark to put the Lions up 6-4. The Hawks cut into the lead when Jeffrey Beall scored an unassisted goal with 3:05 in the half, cutting the Lion lead to 6-5. But freshman Chris Hogan (Wyckoff, N.J.) scored with just 0:05 left in the period, off of Boyle??s fourth assist of the half, to give Penn State up 7-5 at intermission.
Andrew Mackrides (Newtown Square, Pa.) picked up a ground ball of the opening face off in the third period and raced down the field to score an unassisted goal just at the 14:49 mark to put Penn State up 8-5 early in the third. VanArsdale scored his second goal of the game off Boyle??s fifth assist at the 11:13, followed quickly by Forster??s second goal, off a Ryan McAleenan (Grand Rapids, Mich.) assist just :18 later, giving Penn State a 10-5 lead before five minutes had gone by in the third.
After a St. Joe??s time-out, the Hawks put together a solid offensive possession but could not break through Penn State??s defense as Tommy Zichelli (Severna Park, Md.) knocked a ball free from an SJU attacker and Matt Mulqueen (Downingtown, Pa.) picked the ball up and cleared it back to goalie Drew Adams (Springfield, Pa.). While the defense stiffened, Boyle scored his second goal of the game at the 2:44 mark, working his way around from behind the goal and giving the Lions an 11-5 lead. But St. Joe??s would get a late goal, with O??Brien scoring unassisted with just 0:07 left in the third to cut Penn State??s lead to 11-6.
Penn State weathered an early one-minute man-down situation, easily killing the major. Bubba Scott (Rockville, Md.) then answered, scoring a man-up goal off a Boyle assist with 10:40 left, giving the Nittany Lions a solid 12-6 lead. St. Joe??s answered with a man-up goal of its own as O??Brien scored off a Mike O??Neill assist at the 8:24 mark, cutting the Nittany Lion lead to 12-7. The Penn State defense held firm again, overcoming two short-handed situations and allowing Penn State to wind the clock down for much of the period. St. Joseph??s scored two late goals, however. DeSoye scored off an O??Brien assist at the 1:47 mark and O??Brien scored unassisted with 0:18 left to make the final score 12-9 in Penn State??s favor.
The Nittany Lions out shot St. Joe??s 45-24, including a 29-13 edge in the first half alone. Adams had five saves in the contest while picking up the win. Sophomore Jordan Kolb (Lancaster, Pa.) won five of six face-offs to lead Penn State to a 14 to 11 edge in face-offs won.
Penn State moves to 5-7 overall with the non-conference win. The Nittany Lions are 3-3 in the ECAC. St. Joseph??s is now 5-11 overall and 5-3 in the MAAC. The Nittany Lions will close out their regular season next Saturday with a 1 p.m. game at ECAC leader Georgetown. The contest will be televised live to a CSTV national audience.
GAME SUMMARY: Penn State 12, St. Joseph??s 9 SCORING (Goal-Assist): 1st: SJU 14:06 (D??Avanzo), PSU 13:24 (Pearsall, Boyle), SJU 12:34 (Harbeson), PSU 7:55 (Forster, Boyle), PSU 4:10 (Saltsman, Boyle), SJU 0:13 (Varga, Lopes) 2nd: SJU 11:38 (DeSoye, O??Brien), PSU 11:00 (Boyle, Forster), SJU 3:05 (Beall), PSU 0:05 (Hogan, Boyle) 3rd: PSU 14:49 (Mackrides), PSU 11:l3 (VanArsdale, Boyle), PSU 10:55 (Forster, McAleenan), PSU 2:44 (Boyle), SJU 0:07 (O??Brien) 4th: PSU 10:40 (Scott, Boyle), SJU 8:24 (O??Brien, O??Neill), SJU 1:47 (DeSoye, O??Brien), SJU 0:18 (O??Brien) GROUNDBALLS: PSU 36, SJU 34 ?C EMO: PSU 1-2, SJU 1-4 SHOTS (SH-SOG): PSU 45-25, SJU 24-16 FACE-OFFS: PSU 14-25, SJU 11-25 GOALIE SUMMARY: PSU (Drew Adams 54:45, 7 GA, 5 SV; Greg Boyle 5:15, 2 GA, S SV), SJU (R.J. Bopf 60:00, 12 GA, 13 SV) SCORE BY QUARTERS: 1 2 3 4 F PENN STATE 3 4 4 1 12 ST. JOSEPH??S 3 2 1 3 9 RECORDS: Penn State 5-7, 3-3 ECAC, St. Joseph??s 5-11, 5-3 MAAC UP NEXT FOR PSU: Penn State visits Georgetown, Saturday, May 5, 1 p.m.