March 12, 2016
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Behind junior Nick Aponte's game winning goal, Penn State men's lacrosse (5-2) knocked off No. 8/7 Harvard (4-2) 13-12, for a thrilling overtime victory Saturday afternoon at the Penn State Lacrosse Field.
Aponte and senior TJ Sanders led the team with a pair of hat tricks while freshman Grant Ament finished second on the team with two goals and three assists on three shots. Along with the game winner, Aponte also led the team with three assists for a team-high six points.
A total of eight Nittany Lions found the scoring column, as junior Mike Sutton, redshirt junior Matt Florence, junior Dan Craig, sophomore Josh Wellman and freshman Kevin Hill all totaled one goal apiece.
"It's been a great spring break, I felt like we had really good energy and synergy coming off the trip to Furman," said head coach Jeff Tambroni. "I felt like our guys have been really focused the last few days and I thought we came out and played that way early in the game."
Wellman highlighted the game with a career-high outing from the faceoff "x," winning 18-of-29 attempts, while also collecting 10 ground balls. Sophomore Mike Aronow and freshman Chris Sabia led the defense with two and three caused turnovers, respectively. Senior James Chakey also logged four ground balls, while Aronow had two.
"I thought Josh Wellman was the key to today's game," Tambroni said. "He just gave us a ton of extra possessions -- we just have not had, certainly in our losses. It allowed us to at least be competitive and I thought we maximized them in the first half, but did a poor job in the second half. But the good thing was that our defense really tightened up in the second half."
Sophomore goalie Will Schreiner earned his fifth win in goal for the Nittany Lions, while also setting a career-high mark with 10 saves.
With Harvard leading 2-0 early in the game, Aponte sparked a 6-1 scoring streak to send the Nittany Lions into the second quarter leading 6-3. The Crimson looked to hold off the run with a goal following Aponte's first of the game, but two more from Sanders and one from Hill, Florence and Ament rounded out the strike for the Nittany Lions.
Penn State continued its momentum into the second quarter as Wellman won the faceoff and charged straight for the net, scoring his first collegiate goal to lift the Nittany Lions up by four, 7-3 with 14:51 remaining in the first half. Ament added another to widen the PSU scoring streak to seven straight, as Penn State pulled ahead by as many as five, 8-3, with 9:57 left in the second quarter.
Harvard came storming back, using a 5-2 run to cut the Penn State advantage back to two, 10-8, scoring two of the goals in the span within the last 2:20 seconds of the half.
The Nittany Lions held the Crimson without a goal in the third quarter as Sutton and Craig scored back-to-back goals within exactly two minutes of each other to build the Penn State advantage back to four, 12-8, with 7:30 remaining in the third quarter.
Penn State could not shake the Crimson for good, as Harvard held Penn State without a goal for 23:30, scoring four goals in the fourth quarter to tie the score, 12-12, with 4:04 remaining in regulation. The two teams exchanged turnovers for one last shot at possession within the final minute of play, but neither squad put away a goal as time expired.
Penn State held off early pressure from the Crimson in the opening part of the overtime period, but Ament found Aponte for the game winner with 2:59 remaining to secure the win.
"I was actually going to pass the ball to TJ (Sanders)," Aponte said. "But two times in this game Harvard got lucky and got the pass onto their sticks, so I just took it all the way. I saw an opening and buried it top right."
"We could have easily collapsed and felt sorry for ourselves that we gave up a five, four, or two goal lead, but then we were able to take advantage of it with an aggressive style coming from defense to offense," Tambroni said. "To say that I am proud of this group would be a major understatement."
The Nittany Lions remain home next week, returning to action Saturday, March 19, welcoming Massachusetts for a noon matchup.
NOTES: Penn State moves to 2-0 on the year against ranked opponents, while also earning its first win over a Top 10 opponent since 2014 ... The Nittany Lions move to 2-1 in the all-time series against Harvard, picking up their first program win over the Crimson in history ... PSU improves to 4-0 on the year when scoring at least 10 goals ... Nick Aponte has now registered at least one point in 25 consecutive games dating back to April 5, 2014 ... TJ Sanders has also scored at least three goals in four games this season, with at least two in all but one of seven outings.