Box Score UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.–For the third time in as many visits to Happy Valley, the Penn State men's lacrosse team edged Hobart College by just a single goal. The 19th-ranked Nittany Lions led by as many as four and held on for a 12-11 win over the 17th-ranked Statesmen.
Cast in the mold of the Lions-Statesmen Pennsylvania battles of 1999, PSU 7-6, and 1997, PSU 12-11 in double overtime, Penn State and Hobart needed the full 60 minutes to decide the winner.
Hobart used its most explosive first quarter of the season to build a 4-3 lead. Entering this afternoon's game, the Statesmen (4-2) hadn't scored more than two goals in the first 15 minutes. First quarter tallies by sophomore attackman John Bogosian (Massena, N.Y.), senior attackman Jamie Breslin (Mountain Lakes, N.J.), senior midfielder Jason Ouellet (Cheshire, Conn.), and sophomore midfielder Tim Booth (Waterloo, N.Y.) gave Hobart its first lead through the end of the first quarter.
Penn State (4-4) scored the first four goals of the second quarter to claim a 7-4 lead, 1:32 before halftime. The Statesmen responded with back-to-back goals in the final 66 seconds of the half to enter the break down 7-6. Breslin netted the first, finishing a feed from sophomore midfielder Sean Kent (Oreland, Pa.) on a failed clear by the Lions. Senior attackman Eric Burns (Syracuse, N.Y.) netted the second just 14 seconds later on an assist from sophomore long-stick midfielder Bryan Bome (Syracuse, N.Y.).
Things could have been worse for Hobart in the second quarter, but the man-down defense came up huge. Simultaneous technical penalties for holding and offsides put the Statesmen two-men down at the 10:39 mark. Fifteen seconds later, Hobart was whistled for slashing, putting the team three men down. The Statesmen killed all three penalties and allowed just two tallies in seven man-down situations for the game.
After the break, Penn State expanded its lead to 10-6 with the first three goals of the third quarter. Breslin scored Hobart's only goal of the third quarter, 57 seconds before the end of the frame to pull the Statesmen to within three, 10-7. Breslin finished with three goals and an assist.
Bogosian, Hobart's leading scorer (12-15), recorded back-to-back goals to open the fourth quarter and shrink the Statesmen's deficit to just one, 10-9. Penn State's Will Driscoll single handedly pushed the lead back to three with his fourth and fifth goals of the afternoon.
Ouellet started Hobart's last charge with an extra-man goal at the 2:55 mark, assisted by Bogosian. Ouellet finished with two goals and an assist, while Bogosian led the Statesmen with three goals and two assists.
Sophomore attackman Kris Shore (Liverpool, N.Y.) made it a one-goal game with 91 seconds remaining, tiptoeing along the crease and beating the keeper low. Penn State won the ensuing faceoff, called timeout, and promptly turned the ball over. Hobart advanced the ball to the attack zone, but turned the ball over itself when it was called for offsides. The Nittany Lions ran out the clock from there.
Sophomore goalie Mike Borsz (Camillus, NY) finished with 13 saves for Hobart.
Hobart will play its fourth straight game on the road when it travels to Georgetown on April 14. The game is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.
–HWS SPORTS–
