UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The 2021 Penn State men's lacrosse season ended Saturday with a 15-7 loss to Johns Hopkins in the quarterfinal round of the Big Ten Tournament. The third-seeded Lions finished with a 4-7 record, while the sixth-seeded Blue Jays improved to 3-8 and advance to play second-seeded Rutgers in the semifinal on Thursday at Panzer Stadium.
The game was close after one quarter before Johns Hopkins pulled away with an 8-3 goal differential in the middle two quarters. Penn State jumped out to a 3-1 lead with goals by Mark Sickler, Mac O'Keefe and Jack Kelly, but the Blue Jays scored the next three goals and never trailed again.
Penn State took advantage of man-up opportunities early on, converting their first three. Kelly scored two man-up goals, the second of which tied the game at 4-4 with 10:43 to play in the second quarter.
Kelly and O'Keefe paced Penn State's offense with two goals apiece, while Sickler, TJ Malone and Grant Haus scored once apiece. Dylan Foulds and Malone each had two assists. O'Keefe added one assist to give him three points on the day.
Foulds, Nick Cardile, Sutton Boland and Jack Posey each had three ground balls. Brayden Peck and Brett Funk caused two turnovers apiece, while Cardile caused one.
Connor DeSimone led Johns Hopkins with six points on three goals and three assists. Cole Williams totaled four goals. The Blue Jays received a strong performance in goal from Tim Marcille, who made 12 saves on 18 chances.
The Penn State seniors finished as one of the greatest classes in program history. The group played a key role in the team's 2019 Big Ten regular season and Tournament titles and had the Lions ranked first in the country for multiple weeks during the 2019 and 2020 seasons.
Multiple Penn State players will leave Penn State with their name in the NCAA, Big Ten and program record books.
O'Keefe finishes his career as the most prolific scorer in NCAA Division I history with 221 goals in 66 games played. He broke the previous record of 212 goals in 75 games played earlier this season. He ranks second in program history with 269 points.
Gerard Arceri eclipsed 900 career faceoff wins during the game against Johns Hopkins. He is easily the program record holder with 914 and ranks fifth in NCAA Division I history. He is also the program record holder with 590 career ground balls, which ranks fourth in NCAA Division I.
Colby Kneese made 657 saves during his career, which ranks as the third most in Penn State history.
Also playing their final game with the Nittany Lions were Cardile (USILA All-American), Foulds (93 goals, 38 assists, 131 points), John Nostrant (36 games played, 5 goals, 10 ground balls) and Jake McCaughan (15 games played).
Panzer Stadium will be the host site for the semifinal and final rounds of the Big Ten Tournament. Top-seeded Maryland, the No. 1 ranked team in the country, plays fifth-seeded Michigan on Thursday at 5 p.m., followed by Rutgers vs. Johns Hopkins at 7:30 p.m. The winners of those games will play each other for the title on Saturday at 8 p.m.
