March 26, 2011
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State men's lacrosse team won their third consecutive contest, downing the Hawks of St. Joseph's, 14-6 at Penn State's Bigler Field. Junior attackman Jack Forster (Jenkintown, Pa.) paced the offense with four goals, while sophomore face-off man Danny Henneghan (Beverly Hills, Mich.) registered his first two goals of the season, the first multi-point game of his Nittany Lion career. Junior captain Matthew Mackrides (Newtown Square, Pa.) contributed three assists.
The Penn State offense was clicking early, as the Lions scored the game's first three goals. Freshman midfielder Gavin Ahern (Rockville Centre, NY) opened the scoring on a Shane Sturgis feed at the 10:18 mark. Mackrides found Forster under a minute later to double the Penn State lead at 9:33, and fed Sturgis at 8:46 to push the Lions' lead to three. St. Joseph's would answer at 7:18 to close out the scoring in the first quarter with Penn State on top, 3-1.
Penn State opened the scoring in the second quarter on a man-up goal from Forster at 12:21 with Sturgis assisting on the play. The Lions scored the game's next two goals after lengthy possessions, with freshman Tom LaCrosse (Canandaigua, NY), and sophomore Billy Gribbin (Rockville, Md.) chipping in unassisted tallies to put the Lions up, 6-1. St. Joseph's attempted to close the gap with a goal at the 1:08 mark, but Henneghan would promptly win the ensuing faceoff forward and score on the fast break just six seconds later at 1:02. The Hawks would have the last laugh of the half however, as Kyle Mahoney put one behind freshman goalie Austin Kaut (Morton, Pa.) with :31 seconds to play to send the game into halftime with Penn State ahead, 7-3.
The third quarter opened with end to end action, until Mackrides finally struck with an unassisted goal at the 8:27 mark. The Hawks would score at 5:24 before Dolik pushed the Penn State lead back to five off a Sturgis assist at 2:40. St. Joseph's tallied again just :30 seconds later at 2:10, but it was all Penn State to close out the quarter. Forster completed the hat-trick at 1:09 on a Mackrides assist, and Dolik buried an unassisted left-handed shot at 0:19 to close the quarter with Penn State on top, 11-5.
The fourth quarter was all Penn State, as Forster scored his fourth and final goal of the game just :44 seconds in at the 14:16 mark. Henneghan added his second of the game just six seconds later at 14:10 after winning the ensuing faceoff. Junior midfielder Ryan Link (Englewood, Co.) closed out the Penn State scoring on an unassisted effort with 4:05 to play. The Hawks scored the final goal of the game with 0:31 on the clock, but it was too little too late, as the Lions won the ensuing face-off and ran out the clock for a 14-6 victory.
Penn State outshot St. Joseph's 33-30, including a 19-14 edge in shots on goal. Nine different players scored for the Nittany Lions, and both Mackrides and Sturgis had three assists. In addition to Forster and Henneghan's multi-goal efforts, Dolik also struck twice for Penn State, while Mackrides, Sturgis, Link, Ahern, Gribbin, and LaCrosse each had a goal apiece. Kyle VanThof (Penfield, NY) also had an assist for the Lions. Kaut was solid in goal with eight saves.
Henneghan won 14 of 21 face-offs for the Nittany Lions and led the team with seven ground balls. The Penn State man-up was perfect on the day, converting on their only opportunity. The Lions' man-down unit was flawless as well, holding the Hawks scoreless on six attempts. Penn State had 14 turnovers to only 13 for St Joseph's.
Penn State is now 4-3 on the year while St. Joseph's moves to 0-7. The Nittany Lions will travel to Bucknell on Tuesday, March 29 for a 7:30 p.m. contest, before visiting Lehigh on Saturday, April 2 for a 1 p.m. faceoff. Penn State returns home on Saturday, April 9 to host Drexel for a 1 p.m. CAA Conference matchup. The game will be played at Bigler Field unless otherwise announced.
GAME SUMMARY: Penn State 14, St. Joseph's 7
SCORING (Goal, Assist):
1st: PSU 10:19 (Ahern, Sturgis), PSU 9:33 (Forster, Mackrides), PSU 8:46 (Sturgis, Mackrides), SJU 7:18 (Mahoney, Dunn)
2nd: PSU 12:21 (Forster, Sturgis), PSU 8:56 (LaCrosse), PSU 4:12 (Gribbin), SJU 1:08 (Williams), PSU 1:02 (Henneghan), SJU 0:31 (Mahoney, Dougherty)
3rd: PSU 8:27 (Mackrides), SJU 5:24 (Dunn), PSU 2:40 (Dolik, Sturgis), SJU 2:10 (Correia), PSU 1:09 (Forster, Mackrides), PSU 0:19 (Dolik)
4th: PSU 14:16 (Forster, VanThof), PSU 14:10 (Henneghan), PSU 4:05 (Link), SJU 0:31 (Williams)
GROUNDBALLS: PSU 33 SJU 29 MAN-UP OPPS: PSU 1-1, SJU 0-6
SHOTS (SH-SOG): PSU 33-19, SJU 30-14 FACE-OFFS: PSU 14-24, SJU 10-24
GOALIE SUMMARY: PSU Austin Kaut (56:34, 8 SV, 5 GA) John Nichols (3:26 0 SV, 1 GA), SJU Chris Moffa (60:00, 5 SV, 14 GA)
SCORE BY QUARTERS: 1 2 3 4 F
PENN STATE 3 4 4 3 14
ST. JOSEPH'S 1 2 2 1 6
RECORDS: Penn State 4-3, 2-0 CAA; St. Joseph's 0-7, 0-2 CAA
ATTENDANCE: 352