Penn State Men survive scare to top Dartmouth, 23-18
Penn State managed to come away with a win Saturday in front of 300+ Alumni friends and family, dispatching a very good Dartmouth Team 23-18.
The team is still working on finding some rhythm with some new combinations as the season is still young. This certainly contributed to some of the uncharacteristic errors that we saw, but they were still able to capitalize in moments to put in a few really well worked tries on the weekend.
The match was very much back and forth throughout the contest. Penn State opened the scoring with a try in the corner by Jesse Capriotti, off a nice charged down kick and flick pass to put him away. A Dartmouth penalty brought the scores closer, but a Penn State penalty from Connor Dellapina extended the lead again before half.
While the Lions controlled majority of the possession in the 2nd half, we just could not seem to find the try line until Tommy Capriotti, dove over from the back of a dominant scrum later into the half. But Dartmouth again closed the gap and eventually tied the match following some ill-discipline from the Lions. Tied at 18 a piece with time dying down, winger Jesse Capriotti was able to free himself down the sideline, newcomer GianCarlo Nastasi ran a fantastic support line to continue the play, finally returning the ball to Jesse who pulled away from the defense for the go-ahead and eventual winning try.
The match was followed by a fantastic Friends and Family event at the Penn State Golf Course. It was great to see so many people coming back to support the program in various ways. It was great for the current team to see that it means a lot more than just the games on the weekends.
The Lions hit the road this coming weekend as we continue league play in New York against St. Bonaventure. The match will be played at 1:05p and televised live on ESPN+. We are excited now to get into the business-end of the season.
PSU 23 – 18 Dartmouth College:
Tries: J.Capriotti x2, T.Capriotti
Conversions: Dellapina 1 from 3
Penalties: Dellapina 1 from 2
Drop Goal: Dellapina