April 28, 2007

Box Score

University Park, PA - In their last game of the regular season, Saint Joseph's men's lacrosse team fell to Penn State, 12-9, at Jeffrey Field Saturday night. The Hawks finish the season with a 5-11 record while the Nittany Lions improve to 5-7.

The Hawks jumped on the board first with a goal by Joe D'Avanzo less than a minute into play. Penn State quickly responded with a goal of its own at 13:23. Goals were traded as Matt Harbeson regained the lead for the Hawks. PSU scored two more goals to take the lead with 4:09 remaining in the first quarter. Steve Varga converted a pass from Pat McEvoy to tie the score with 13 seconds left in the period.

SJU gained the lead at 11:38 with a Geoff DeSoye from Steve O'Brien but Penn State tied it again 34 seconds later and then scored two more goals to stretch the lead to 6-4 before the Hawks scored again when Jeff Beall found the back of the net. The Nittany Lions scored once more before the break, making the score 7-5 at the half.

Penn State added four more goals in the third quarter, keeping the Hawks scoreless for most of the period. O'Brien finally added a tally for SJU with just seven seconds remaining. The Nittany Lions added one more to their lead in the top of the fourth. The Hawks then went on a three-goal scoring streak with O'Brien and Mike O'Neill combining for the first, DeSoye scored his second, assisted by O'Brien, and then O'Brien scored the third. Their come-back stint was not enough to overcome PSU's lead as time ran out in regulation.

RJ Bopf played all 60:00 minutes, recording 13 saves for the day. The Hawks scooped up 34 ground balls and completed 20 clears in the contest.