April 3, 2016
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COLUMBUS, Ohio -- No. 18 Penn State men's lacrosse (7-3, 1-0) opened the 2016 Big Ten conference slate with a 6-5 win on the road at Ohio State (5-6, 0-1) Sunday afternoon at Ohio Stadium.
"We're extremely excited to get the win, a road win let alone a Big Ten win, against a team as competitive as Ohio State," head coach Jeff Tambroni said. "I think both of those elements are extremely important as the season goes on and it speaks to not only the character of the leadership that we have, but also the preparation coming off of an emotional win in Texas against Denver. I think in so many different ways it was a great win for us."
Six Nittany Lion goal-scorers powered the Penn State offense as junior Dan Craig, freshman Nick Spillane, junior Nick Aponte, junior Mike Sutton, junior Brian Prestreau and redshirt junior Matt Florence all scored one goal each.
Freshman Grant Ament dished out a team-high two assists, while sophomore Ryan Keenan and senior TJ Sanders added one apiece.
Sophomore goalie Will Schreiner recorded a career-high outing for the Nittany Lions, posting a career-high 15 saves, making six in the fourth quarter alone.
Sophomore Mike Aronow led the team with four ground balls. Senior Drake Kreinz logged three ground balls in his first appearance at the faceoff "x" for the Nittany Lions. Freshman Christopher Sabia and senior James Burke totaled two ground balls each, while Burke also added a caused turnover.
Craig put the Nittany Lions on the board early, scoring unassisted to make it 1-0 with 13:53 left in the first quarter. The Buckeyes answered back with a goal to even the score, 1-1, but Spillane followed with his second of the season less than two minutes later to put Penn State back on top, 2-1, with 3:30 remaining in the first quarter.
Aponte found the net just 49 seconds into the second quarter, scoring on a pass from Sanders to send the Nittany Lions ahead by two, 3-1. The Nittany Lions continued to hold off pressure from the Buckeyes as Schreiner posted four saves to protect the Penn State advantage. With 2:34 remaining in the opening half, Sanders found Sutton cutting in front of the net for his first goal of the afternoon to push PSU ahead, 4-1, heading into halftime.
Ohio State came out of the intermission with back-to-back goals within a 39-second stretch to cut the Penn State advantage back to one, 4-3 with 10:07 remaining in the third quarter. Regrouping, Keenan found Prestreau on a cross for his first of the afternoon to bring the Nittany Lions back up by two, 5-3 with 8:05 left to play in the third quarter.
Penn State held off the Buckeyes for the remainder of the third quarter before Ohio State used another pair of back-to-back goals to tie the score, 5-5 with 6:53 remaining in the fourth quarter.
With 1:41 remaining in the game, Florence blasted a shot into the back of the net off an assist from Ament to bring the Nittany Lions back on top, 6-5. Ohio State looked to even the score once more with less than a minute to play, but Schreiner's 15th save of the game held off the Buckeyes as time expired.
The Nittany Lions return home for back-to-back Big Ten conference outings. Penn State kicks off the two-game homestand welcoming Maryland to the Penn State Lacrosse field Sunday, April 10 at 7 p.m. on the Big Ten Network.
NOTES: Penn State is 1-0 at the start of Big Ten play for the first time since conference play began in 2015 ... Will Schreiner's 15 saves are the most for a Nittany Lion goalie since Connor Darcey had 17 saves in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals against No. 17 Johns Hopkins April 30, 2015 ... Schreiner's six saves in the fourth quarter are also a season-high mark for individual saves in a quarter ... The Nittany Lions improve to 3-1 in true road games and 14-6 all-time against Ohio State ... Penn State held Ohio State without a goal in the second quarter, marking the fourth time this season the Nittany Lions have limited their opponent without a goal in a quarter ... Nick Spillane's goal marks his second of the season and first since scoring in the team's 20-7 season-opening win against Robert Morris (2/7) ... With one goal, Nick Aponte stretched his streak to 28 consecutive games with at least one point, dating back to April 5, 2014 ... Matt Florence also stretches his streak to six straight games with one goal, while also marking the second time this season he's registered the go-ahead goal to secure the win.