March 1, 2013
Game Notes | | Creator's Trophy Standings & Stats | 2013 Yearbook
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Nittany Lion men's lacrosse team, ranked eighth for the second straight week, hosts No. 16 Ohio State at Penn State Lacrosse Field on Saturday at 1 p.m. With a victory, Penn State can clinch its second straight Creator's Trophy title. Ohio State enters Saturday on a three-game winning streak.
PARKING & ADMISSION
All Penn State regular season lacrosse games are free to attend and park. Parking near Penn State Lacrosse Field can be found in Red Lot 44 near the Multi-Sport Complex and Bryce Jordan Center. The field is located on the corner of University Drive and Dauer Road.
#8 PENN STATE NITTANY LIONS (2-1) vs. #16 OHIO STATE (3-0)
Game 4: March 2, 2013 // 1:00 p.m. // Penn State Lacrosse Field // University Park, Pa.
GAME DAY
VENUE: Penn State Lacrosse Field (turf; 1,000)
SERIES RECORD: 12-4
LAST MEETING: Mar. 3, 2012; Penn State 5-2 (Columbus, Ohio)
NEXT GAME: Mar. 9 vs. #17 Lehigh (at PPL Park; Chester, Pa.)
GAME NOTES
• Penn State hosts Ohio State looking to defend Creator's Trophy
• PSU defeated Ohio State last season in Columbus, 5-2
• Penn State dropped a heartbreaking overtime thriller to No. 3 Notre Dame, 10-9
• Jack Forster and Tom LaCrosse each notched a hat trick in the defeat
• Forster has nine career hat tricks and LaCrosse has two; Shane Sturgis has five
• Ohio State is undefeated and beat first-year Marquette last week, 18-8
• Penn State is 3-0 all-time in the Creator's Trophy series with Michigan and Ohio State
• Austin Kaut and OSU's Greg Dillon are among the best goalies in the nation
• TJ Sanders and OSU's Carter Brown are key freshman attackers
• Penn State is ranked eighth for the fourth time, matching highest ranking ever
• Shane Sturgis & Jack Forster are riding 9- and 15-game point streaks, respectively
• Ohio State will be PSU's third ranked foe in a row of five
• Next week Penn State travels to Chester, Pa. to face Keystone State rival Lehigh
SCOUTING THE BUCKEYES
Sixteenth-ranked Ohio State (3-0) is coming off a convincing 18-8 win over first-year Marquette on Feb. 23. The Buckeyes, who are also ranked 13th in the Nike/Inside Lacrosse Media Poll, own a home win over Detroit (14-8) and an away win at Jacksonville (9-6). OSU has outscored its three opponents 41-22 overall and 20-7 in the second half.
The high-powered offense is led by returning third-team USILA All-American Logan Schuss who has a team-high 15 points on 10 goals and five points. Schuss tallied two-thirds of his season's points vs. Detroit scoring seven times and dishing three assists. Schuss is helped out by Carter Brown (6 goals, 8 assists) and Jesse King (8 goals, 3 assists) on the attacking unit.
Goalie Greg Dutton has played solidly in net, garnering a 7.07 GAA with a .500 save percentage in 169:41 of game time. Faceoff specialist Trey Wilkes has a .581 winning percentage this year.
ALL-TIME SERIES VS. OSU
All-Time Series: 12-4
PSU Streak: 1 win
First Meeting: 4/7/79, PSU 14-11
Last Meeting: 3/3/12, PSU 5-2
Last PSU Win: 3/3/12, 5-2
Last OSU Win: 3/5/11, 6-5 (3OT)
Largest PSU Win: 24-4, 4/3/82
Largest OSU Win: 17-6, 3/8/08
At home vs. OSU: 6-2
PSU Goals vs. OSU: 179-116
LAST SEVEN MEETINGS VS. OSU
3/3/12: W, 5-2 // A
3/5/11: L, 5-6 (3OT) // H
3/6/10: L, 10-11 (OT) // A
3/7/09: W, 11-5 // H
3/8/08: L, 6-17 // A
3/10/07: L, 8-10 // N*
3/11/06: W, 11-10 (OT) // A
* at Georgetown Prep; North Bethesda, Md.
Note: Penn State and Ohio State will meet for the 11th straight season on Saturday. PSU is 6-4 in the past 10 meetings.
LAST TIME VS. OSU (Mar. 3, 2012)
No. 13 Penn State captured the inaugural Creator's Trophy with a 5-2 win over No. 16/17 Ohio State at Ohio Stadium on Saturday afternoon. The Nittany Lions won their third straight win and allowed their fewest goals since defeating Air Force by a 16-2 margin in 2002.
Senior Matthew Mackrides, who has scored two goals in each game this season, tallied twice to lead the Nittany Lions. Sophomores Gavin Ahern, Tom LaCrosse and Shane Sturgis also tallied for Penn State. One week after stopping 18 shots against then-No. 2/4 Notre Dame, classmate Austin Kaut made 14 saves, and Ohio State netminder Greg Dutton stopped 12 shots.
CREATOR'S TROPHY ON THE LINE
Penn State won the inaugural Creator's Trophy, a men's lacrosse competition started in 2012 by the Big Ten schools Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State. The Nittany Lions went 2-0 in the round-robin format, while the Buckeyes went 1-1 and the Wolverines went 0-2.
This season, Penn State is 1-0 and can clinch the trophy on Saturday when it meets Ohio State in Happy Valley.
2012 Creator's Trophy Schedule
Feb. 9: Penn State 11, Michigan 6
Mar. 2: Ohio State at Penn State, 1 p.m.
Apr. 13: Ohio State at Michigan, 1 p.m.
TOP NETMINDERS
For the second straight week, two of the nation's top goalies square off. After facing ND's John Kemp, Austin Kaut stands acrosse from Ohio State senior netminder Greg Dutton.
Here's how the goalies stack by the numbers:
Player: GP-S // W-L // Time // GAA // Sv. Pct.
Kaut: 32-32 // 18-14 // 1888:45 // 8.16 // .603
Dutton: 32-32 // 17-15 // 1859:42 // 7.61 // .540
BATTLE OF FRESHMAN ATTACKERS
Another battle to keep an eye on will be a pair of stellar freshman attackers in Penn State's TJ Sanders and OSU's Carter Brown. Sanders has eight goals and two assists through three games while Brown has 14 points on six goals and eight assists. Brown was named ECAC Rookie of the Week for his performance against Marquette this past Saturday.
IRISH PULL OUT COMEBACK WIN
A capacity crowd of 1,249 witnessed a back and forth game between No. 8 Penn State and No. 3 Notre Dame in which three goals were scored in the final 24 seconds of regulation. Junior Tom LaCrosse tied it with sixth-tenths of a second left to send the game to overtime where UND's Matt Kavanagh scored with 1:34 to go in the extra frame as Notre Dame escaped with a 10-9 win at Holuba Hall.
Penn State took a two-goal lead, 7-5, 49 seconds into the fourth quarter on a man-up goal from Kyle VanThof, assisted by Jack Forster. That score capped a four-point effort by Forster, who scored three goals between the second and third quarters.
Notre Dame answered with back-to-back goals with 9:28 remaining from Tyler Kimball and Liam O'Connor on the ensuing faceoff to tie the game at seven. LaCrosse made it 8-7 three minutes later and Penn State held a tenuous one-goal lead into the fourth quarter's final minute when Notre Dame called timeout.
Conor Doyle scored his third of the game to tie the game at eight with 24 seconds left and O'Connor scored immediately after winning the faceoff six seconds later as UND looked assured of the comeback victory. Penn State's Danny Henneghan won the faceoff as Kessler Brown collected the ground ball, scooped it to Michael Richards and flipped it to LaCrosse. LaCrosse dashed to his left and fired a shot to the lower left part of the net past UND netminder John Kemp (10 saves) to knot the game with less than a second left.
HAT TRICK HEROS
In Sunday's game vs. Notre Dame, Jack Forster notched his ninth career hat trick and second of the season. Tom LaCrosse also registered a hat trick against the Fighting Irish, his second of his career. In all, seven Nittany Lions have registered at least three goals in a game.
Jack Forster: 9
Shane Sturgis: 5
TJ Sanders: 2
Gavin Ahern: 2
Nick Dolik: 2
Tom LaCrosse: 2
Kyle VanThof: 1
NITTANY LIONS IN THE RANKINGS
Penn State was ranked eighth by the USILA Coaches this week, marking the first time Penn State has been ranked eighth in back-to-back weeks. The last time PSU was ranked in the top 10 in consecutive weeks was for four weeks (March 10, Apr. 8, 1996) matching the highest ranking in school time. This is the fourth time the Nittany Lions have achieved a ranking of eighth.
GOING STREAKING
Penn State's potent attack has a pair of Nittany Lions riding point streaks from last season. Leading the way is Jack Forster whose 15-game streak started on March 3 against Ohio State. Nick Dolik had his 13-game streak snapped against Notre Dame, while Shane Sturgis is at nine games.
Name /// Games // Date started // G-A-P
Forster: 15 // 3/3/12 // 31-11-42
Sturgis: 9 // 3/31/12 // 22-7-29
RUNNING THE GAUNTLET
Penn State is currently in a stretch of five games against USILA ranked opponents. So far, PSU is 1-1 after Sunday, Feb. 17's defeat of No. 9 Denver. Two more games await PSU over the next three weeks: No. 17 Lehigh and No. 5 Massachusetts.
Another Penn State opponent, No. 14 Drexel (Apr. 6) is also ranked. Bucknell (March 26), Hofstra (Apr. 27) received votes in last week's poll.
NEXT TIME OUT
Penn State travels to PPL Park in Chester, Pa. for the Whitman's Sampler Independence Classic on Saturday, Mar. 9 vs. Lehigh. Game time is set for 5 p.m. and the game is slated to carried live on ESPN3.com. Ticket information for the game can be found on GoPSUsports.com.
--NITTANY LIONS--