University of Massachusets Athletics
University of Massachusetts
Penn State
UMass Lax Notches 7-5 Win At Penn State
March 29, 2008 | Men's Lacrosse
March 29, 2008
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The UMass men's lacrosse team snapped a three-game losing streak with a 7-5 win at Penn State on Saturday afternoon. The Minutemen move to 3-5 overall, 1-1 in the ECAC while the Nittany Lions suffered their first loss in the league as they are 4-4 overall and 2-1 in ECAC play. The Minutemen used an opportunistic ball-control offense, scoring seven goals on 21 shots while goalie Doc Schneider made 12 saves, including five in the fourth quarter.
Tim Balise scored two goals to add to his team-leading 15 tallies on the season. Fellow attackmen and freshmen Peter McNichols scored twice and added an assist while Zach Rodgers had a goal and two assists. Bobby Hayes had a goal and assist while Fred Federico scored his third of the season in the second half.
UMass scored the first three goals of the second quarter to break a 2-2 tie at the end of the first quarter to lead 5-2 with 3:36 left in the first half. The Minutemen never trailed after that, leading the rest of the way while fighting off a shooting barrage by the Nittany Lions in the fourth quarter.
McNichols' second goal of the game, an unassisted tally just 1:42 in the second quarter put the Minutemen ahead 3-2. Rogers and Hayes added two more tallies late in the quarter, just 47 second apart to build a 5-2 advantage. PSU's Andrew Mackrides scored his second goal of the game to cut the lead to 5-3 at intermission.
Colby Rhodes brought the Lions to within one at 5-4, 1:24 into the second half, but Balise responded three minutes later off a feed to Rodgers to regain a two-goal edge, 6-4.
Federico scored a clutch goal with nine seconds left in the third quarter for a three-goal lead heading to the fourth quarter.
PSU's Max VanArsdale scored 37 seconds into the fourth quarter. But that would be the final goal of the game as UMass' defense stood tall with Schneider in goal as the Nittany Lions scored just that one goal on 10 fourth-quarter shots.
Penn State had the advantage in nearly every stat, but UMass won the only column that mattered, goals. The Nittany Lions led in shots (34-21), groundballs (39-18), face-offs (9-5), clearing percentage and extra-man chances and goals.
UMass continues ECAC play at St. John's and former UMass assistant coach Jason Miller, now the head coach of the Red Storm, next Saturday at 1 p.m. That game will be heard live on 100.9 FM WRNX from DaSilva Field in Jamaica, N.Y.
