4/12/2003 - Men's Lacrosse
Lacrosse Falls at Penn State
Penn State outshot Navy 41-19 in the game and built a 5-1 third-period lead, then held on for a 5-4 victory over the Midshipmen Saturday afternoon in State College, Pa.
The Nittany Lions (4-5, 2-2 ECAC) outshot Navy (4-6, 0-4 ECAC) 17-4 in the first period and 10-2 in the second to take a 4-1 lead at intermission. Penn State then scored 100 seconds into the second half to take the 5-1 advantage. Navy accounted for the next three tallies and narrowed the deficit to 5-4 on a goal by Joe Bossi with 21 seconds left to play in the third period, but could not come up with an equalizing goal during the remainder of the game.
Defensively, Navy goalkeeper Seth DiNola (So., Ballston Lake, N.Y.) helped keep Navy in the game thanks to a career-high 21 saves on the afternoon. Offensively, Greg Conklin (Sr., Syracuse, N.Y.) scored a pair of goals for the Mids, while Bossi (Jr., Skaneateles, N.Y.) and Ben Bailey (Jr., Memphis, Tenn.) accounted for one goal apiece. Conklin added one assist for Navy, as did John Birsner (Fr., Levittown, N.Y.), with Graham Gill (So., Medford, N.J.) recording a pair of helpers.
Five different players notched goals for Penn State, while Nittany Lion goalkeeper Chris Garrity made seven saves.
Despite the loss, DiNola was once again one of the standouts for the Midshipmen on the day, as he has been over the last few weeks.
"I had a talk with Coach (Ray) Finnegan after the Air Force game (March 25)," said DiNola. "I was putting too much blame on myself. I made the decision to put my trust into myself and my teammates.
"Today, with the deliberate style Penn State plays, we did not do a good job of clearing the ball when we had the opportunity to. That is the fault of the defense and the long offensive sets they ran made us fatigued."
Navy was 20-of-29 on clearing attempts, while Penn State was 20-of-26. Penn State scooped up 38 grounds balls to Navy's 24. Neither team scored in their limited extra-man opportunities -- Navy, 0-2; Penn State, 0-1.
Navy has now lost four-straight games, with two of the losses coming by one goal and the remaining two setbacks coming by two goals. The loss also ends a four-game winning streak for Navy over Penn State, with the last Nittany Lion victory coming in 1992. Saturday's win for Penn State was just the program's second in 38 all-time games against Navy.
The Midshipmen will return to Rip Miller Field on the Naval Academy grounds Tuesday night for a 7 p.m. game against UMBC.
