March 13, 2016
By Maria Canales, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. ââ'¬" After a nail-biting fourth quarter, the Penn State men's lacrosse team (5-2) fought back in overtime to defeat No. 8 Harvard (4-2), 13-12, on Saturday in Happy Valley.
Coming off of a strong win at Furman last Tuesday, head coach Jeff Tambroni was confident in his team's ability to take on a top-10 ranked opponent.
"It's been a good spring break and I felt like we had really good energy and synergy coming off of that trip in South Carolina after our win against Furman," said Tambroni. "We had two good days of practice and a good trip back here to State College."
During Saturday's contest, Harvard got on the board early, with a 2-0 lead less than five minutes into the first quarter. However, it was a battle of the defenses until the very end.
Playing a highly ranked opponent, the Nittany Lions anticipated a strong performance from the Crimson. Harvard's defense attempted to double-team Penn State's attackers, a strategy the Nittany Lions were prepared for.
"We knew that going into this game that they like to double," said junior attacker Nick Aponte. "So we tried to keep our heads up on our dodges and always run away from it and drag them out."
At the other end of the field, Penn State's defense had to constantly adjust throughout the game to be able to read Harvard's offensive plays. Thanks to defenders like senior James Chakey, the Nittany Lions were able to hold Harvard to just 23 shots in the first three quarters of play.
"Harvard came out on offense really quick, but on defense mojo just got clicking right away and we felt really strong with our base defense," said Chakey. "The majority of it was just what we've been doing all year, not too many changes but at half time we tweaked a few things but not much."
During the fourth quarter, the Crimson scored four unanswered goals to tie the game at 12, forcing overtime. Tambroni felt confident going into the extra time because of how his team had played during regulation, but did have some reservations about just how long the Nittany Lions could keep the energy up.
"I felt like our guys have really been focusing the last few days and I thought we came out and played that way early in the game. I felt we got tired, I think both teams got tired as the game went on but for 60 minutes we made some plays, gave some plays away," said Tambroni. "I'm just proud of the fact that they went into overtime the way we did when we could've easily collapsed."
In overtime, the Nittany Lions were eager for possession time, but it was Harvard that got off the first shot on net. With a save from sophomore goaltender Will Schreiner, momentum shifted in favor of Penn State, as the team took the ball into the Crimson's zone.
Off a pass from freshman attacker Grant Ament, Aponte shot the ball and found the back of the net, giving the Nittany Lions the go-ahead win, 13-12.
"I was actually going to pass the ball to TJ Sanders but two times in this game Harvard got lucky and got the pass onto their sticks, so I just took it all the way," said Aponte. "I saw an opening and buried it top right."
Aponte had three goals and three assists in Saturday's contest.
Tambroni credited his team's ability to think quickly and creatively for the win against Harvard.
"We were able to take advantage of [overtime] with an aggressive style of defense to offense," said Tambroni. "To say that I'm proud of this group would be a major understatement."
Next up for Penn State, the Nittany Lions host Massachusetts on Saturday at noon.