March 27, 2010
STATE COLLEGE, Pa; March 27, 2010 - The Penn State Nittany Lion lacrosse team used a furious fourth quarter rally to roll to a 13-11 win over visiting St. John's in non-conference lacrosse action. Penn State scored three straight man-up goals in a six goal final stanza to pick up its first win of the year.
The teams traded early goals, with the Red Storm taking an early 1-0 lead at the 13:00 mark and Penn State answering back less than two minutes later when Billy Gribbin (Rockville, Md.) scored off a Kyle VanThof (Penfield, N.Y.) assist. Gribbin put Penn State up 2-1 just over a minute later, this time taking a Matthew Mackrides (Newtown Square, Pa.) assist at the 9:58 mark and finding the back of the net. St. John's answered with three straight goals to close out the quarter, however, including one at the :34 mark, to lead 4-2 after the opening period.
Mackrides got Penn State to within one with an unassisted goal at the 11:44 mark of the second quarter, but the Red Storm's Tom Manes answered right back at the 10:29 mark to put SJU back up by two, 5-3. Freshman Danny Henneghan (Beverly Hills, Mich.) scored his first career goal just nine seconds later, taking a Mackrides assist, and cut the Storm lead to 5-4. Billy Lloyd (West Chester, Pa.) tied the game just a minute later, taking a VanThof assist to knot the score at 5-5 with 9:25 left in the first half. Manes assisted a Tyler Novotny goal with 4:31 left in the half to put St. John's back on top, 6-5. The Red Storm held that lead into the halftime break.
Alex Lagodich scored his third goal of the game at the 7:19 mark of the third period to put St. John's up 7-5 but Penn State answered right back less than thirty seconds later when Nick Dolik (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.) scored unassisted, cutting SJU's lead to one. Lagodich took a Manes assist with 6:24 on the clock and Dillon Ayers scored unassisted off the ensuing face-off to give SJU a 9-6 lead and force Penn State into a timeout with 6:11 on the clock. Gribbin scored his third goal with 2:43 in the period to stop the St. John's flurry and cut the lead to 9-7, a score which held until the period ended.
Freshman Dolik took the game into his own hands early in the fourth quarter, scoring two goals in the first two minutes to tie the game at 9-9. The Michigan native took a Gribbin assist and scored man-up at the 4:29 mark and then scored unassisted with 13:07 on the clock to knot the game. But St. John's would answer quickly, getting a Garrett Mitchell goal at the 12:34 mark, putting SJU back up 10-9. Senior Anthony Basciano (Holtsville, N.Y.) would then step to the fore, taking advantage of two SJU penalties to give the Nittany Lions a lead. Basciano took a Mackrides assist with 7:57 on the clock and scored a man-up goal to tie game and the scored off a VanThof assist with 6:43 left in the game to put Penn State up 11-10. Chris Hogan (Wycoff, N.J.) then took a Dolik assist and scored a third straight man-up goal for Penn State, this time with 4:35 on the clock, to give Penn State its first two goal lead of the game (12-10). Hogan scored again, unassisted, at the 2:45 mark and Penn State held a 13-10 lead. St. John's would add one final goal in the final minute, but Penn State's fourth quarter blast allowed the Lions to get their first win of the year.
Gribbin led Penn State with four points off three goals and an assist while Mackrides had four off a goal and three assists. The Nittany Lions won 15 of 26 face-offs, led by Charley Henneghan (Beverly Hills, Mich.), who won seven of 11. The game was even statistically, with Penn State having a slight 33-31 edge in ground balls and St. John's posting a 39-35 lead in shots. Nittany Lion goalie Dave Baker (Havertown, Pa.) had nine saves in picking up first win of the year. Penn State took advantage of five of seven man-up chances while holding SJU to only one man-up goal in five tries.
Penn State is now 1-6 on the year while St. John's moves to 3-5. The Nittany Lions will host Bucknell on Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m.
GAME SUMMARY: Penn State 13, St. John's 11
SCORING (Goal-Assist):
1st: SJU 13:00 (Lagodich), PSU 11:04 (Gribbin, VanThof), PSU 9:58 (Gribbin, Mackrides), SJU 7:57 (Holestein), SJU 5:32 (Herits), SJU 0:34 (Lagodich)
2nd: PSU 11:44 (Mackrides), SJU 10:29 (Manes), PSU 10:20 (D. Henneghan, Mackrides), PSU 9:25 (Lloyd, VanThof), SJU 4:31 (Novotny, Manes)
3rd: SJU 7:19 (Lagodich, Herits), PSU 6:45 (Dolik), SJU 6:24 (Lagodich, Manes), SJU 6:11 (Ayers), PSU 2:43 (Gribbin)
4th: PSU 14:29 (Dolik, Gribbin), PSU 13:07 (Dolik), SJU 12:34 (Mitchell), PSU 7:57 (Basciano, Mackrides), PSU 6:43 (Basciano, VanThof), PSU 4:35 (Hogan, Dolik), PSU 2:45 (Hogan), SJU 0:36 (Kutner)
GROUNDBALLS: PSU 33, SJU 31 MAN-UP OPPS: PSU 5-7, SJU 1-5
SHOTS (SH-SOG): PSU 35-21, SJU 39-20 -- FACE-OFFS: PSU 15-26, SJU 11-26
GOALIE SUMMARY: PSU Dave Baker (60:00, 9 SV, 11 GA), SJU Gavin Buckley (58:10, 8 SV, 13 GA) and Jeff Lowman (1:50, 0 SV, 0 GA)
| SCORE BY QUARTERS: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | F |
| PENN STATE | 2 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 13 |
| ST. JOHN'S | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 11 |
RECORDS: Penn State 1-6, St. John's 3-5
ATTENDANCE: 516