ANNAPOLIS, MD. – A frustrating finish for Penn State, falling 35-10, but their resilience and fight were on full display throughout the match.
In a hard-fought contest at Navy, Penn State opened the scoring early, putting the home side under pressure. Prop Cole Stoeppelwerth powered over the try line to give Penn State the lead, with flyhalf Jake O'Donnell adding the conversion. The early score gave Penn State a promising start as they sought to maintain control through tactical kicking and pressuring Navy into mistakes.
However, Navy's clinical counterattacks led to several coast-to-coast tries, exploiting gaps in the Penn State defense. Despite these setbacks, Penn State regrouped and showed great resilience in the final 20 minutes of the match, holding Navy scoreless in that period.
Head coach Zac Mizell reflected on his team’s performance, stating, "We improved this week from last week but still struggled to put together a complete performance. We will look to improve on that performance this weekend when traveling to St. Bonaventure."
While the result didn’t go Penn State’s way, there were key positives in defense and work rate that will serve them well moving forward in Rugby East play.