Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 4/29/12
From Press Releases
Sophomore attackman Shane Sturgis (Downingtown East) scored the game-winning goal in the second overtime period to lift the No. 14/15 Penn State men’s lacrosse team to a 9-8 victory over Hofstra at the Penn State Lacrosse Field on Saturday afternoon. The Nittany Lions improved to 9-5 overall (5-1 CAA) and closed out the regular season with their fifth straight win.
Penn State trailed 8-5 midway through the fourth quarter before it struck for three goals in the frame’s final 3:18. After a scoreless first overtime, Sturgis took a pass from senior attackman Matthew Mackrides (Malvern Prep) and fired a shot past Hofstra goalkeeper Andrew Gvozden for the game-winner. Penn State netminder Austin Kaut (Springfield-Delco), who turned aside 14 shots, made two saves in the second overtime frame before Sturgis’ heroics.
Mackrides, who added a pair of assists, registered his fifth straight three-goal game and is just one marker away from becoming the fifth Nittany Lion in program history with 100 career goals. Senior attackman Jack Forster (La Salle) extended his goal-scoring streak to 10 games en route to a three-point contest (2g, 1a).
Penn State out shot Hofstra by a 40-39 margin, and junior faceoff specialist Danny Henneghan (Beverly Hills, Mich.) finished 11-for-21 on draws. The Nittany Lions were 17-for-17 on clears and 0-for-3 with the extra man, while the Pride (6-8, 2-4 CAA) ended 16-for-20 and 1-for-3, respectively.
Hofstra controlled the game during the first quarter as it took a 4-2 lead. After junior midfielder Nick Dolik opened the scoring for Penn State 1:04 into the game, the Pride tallied four straight goals to take a 4-1 lead. Mackrides, who assisted on Dolik’s strike, ended the frame’s scoring with his 26th goal of the year with 1:53 remaining.
In a tightly-contested second frame, Sturgis brought Penn State to within one goal when he connected on his 16th tally of the year with 12:14 remaining.
Hofstra responded in the third quarter with the frame’s only goals to take a 7-3 advantage. Mike DeNapoli tallied his game-high fourth goal of the game with 3:35 left to give the Pride the four-goal lead.
The Nittany Lions then dominated the fourth stanza, outscoring the Pride by a 5-1 margin to tie the game. Mackrides and Forster scored in a 1:02 span to make it a 7-5 game before Hofstra extended its lead to 8-5 with 8:29 remaining.
With 3:18 left, Forster fired Sturgis’ pass to the back of the net before Mackrides tallied 31 seconds later to make it an 8-7 game. With time winding down, Forster passed to sophomore attackman Gavin Ahern, who bounced a shot past Gvozden with 18 seconds left to the tie game at 8-8.
Following a scoreless first overtime, Sturgis completed the comeback with 1:07 left. After taking the ball around the left side of the cage, Sturgis quickly turned and rocketed a shot for the game-winner.
The Nittany Lions, who improved to 4-4 at home, will return to action on Wednesday (May 2) when they host Drexel in the CAA semifinals. Opening faceoff is set at 7 p.m.
Drexel 10, St. John’s 9
Drexel scored the last three goals of the game to erase a two-goal fourth quarter deficit and defeated St. John’s in a non-conference game at Vidas Field. Robert Church scored three goals and had three assists as the Dragons evened their record at 7-7.
Drexel fell behind 9-7 in the fourth quarter after squandering a three-goal lead early in the game. St. John’s Ryan Fitzgerald broke the 7-7 tie with an extra-man goal with 10:31 to play in the game. The Red Storm won the face-off and increased its lead when Terrence Leach set up Harry Kutner for his fourth score of the contest at the 9:58 mark. The Dragons responded right away as senior Kyle Bergman, playing in his final home game, scored an unassisted goal with 9:01 left to play.
The Dragons wasted little time and tied the game less than a minute later with an Aaron Prosser goal. Drexel won the ensuing face-off, and in the scramble for the loose ball in the Red Storm’s end, Church came up with the ball and set up Brendan Glynn (St. Joseph’s Prep), who went in one on one with St. John’s goalkeeper Jeff Lowman.
Glynn took advantage of the opportunity and scored what proved to be the game winner with 7:54 left in the game. It was Glynn’s 20th goal of the season. The Red Storm would have its opportunities in the final seven minutes, but Mark Manos came up with three saves down the stretch. Drexel’s defense also came up big as Dana Wilber forced a turnover with under two minutes to play and Matt Dusek picked up the ground ball to gain possession. The Dragons then played keep away in the final minute, aided by a St. John’s penalty with 33 seconds left.
St. John’s (7-6) trailed 7-5 midway through the third period after a pair of Church goals broke a 5-5 tie. The junior put Drexel ahead at the 9:26 mark of the quarter when he fired home a shot after a feed from Ben McIntosh. Just 47 seconds later, Church scored his 24th of the season. The Red Storm answered back with four straight goals, two in the third and two more to start the fourth quarters. Ryan Fitzgerald started the Red Storm rally with the first of his two goals. In the final minute of the quarter, Kevin Cernuto tied in with an unassisted goal.
The Dragons played an inspired first quarter and opened up a 4-1 lead. Bergman, Glynn, McIntosh and Church scored for the Dragons, while Cernuto had the only Red Storm tally. Drexel had 12 of its 32 shots in the first quarter and forced five Red Storm turnovers. The second quarter went the other way as St. John’s controlled play and outshot Drexel, 10-3. Kutner scored two goals in the second period as the Red Storm cut the deficit to 4-3. Kieran McArdle opened the third quarter with a goal just 18 seconds in as St. John’s capitalized on a man-up opportunity to tie it at 4-4. Drexel’s Andrew Vivian and Kutner exchanged goals to make it 5-5 before Church scored back-to-back goals.
The Red Storm outshot Drexel, 35-32, and had three more ground balls than the Dragons. Each team committed 13 turnovers. Mark Manos (Salesianum School) made 13 saves in his final home game for Drexel. Lowman had 12 saves, including six in the third quarter. Deven Thomas won 10 of 17 face-offs for the Dragons and had a team-high six ground balls.
The game marked the final home appearance for seniors Bergman, Drew Collins, Max Crockett, Chris Farquhar, Manos, Kevin Stockel, Brian Teuber (Penn Charter), Frank Tufano, and Wilber.
The Dragons open the Colonial Athletic Association Championships on Wednesday night. Drexel will play at Penn State in the CAA semifinals. The winner will face UMass or Towson for an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
St. Joseph’s 6, Towson 3
The Hawks won their final game of the season at Finnesey Field. Sophomore Ryan McGee’s three goals led the Hawks as senior Griffin Ferrigan posted 13 saves in the first half.
The Hawks came out strong as senior Bobby Hurley (St. Joseph’s Prep) jumpstarted the offense with an early goal that came just two minutes into action. McGee would score his first, half-way through the quarter as SJU took a 2-0 lead. Towson settled down to play solid defense and scored two goals to close the half, 2-2.
In the second, Towson fired 10 shots but not one could find the net as Ferrigan made seven saves in the quarter. The second was back and forth as the ball was cleared five times by each team. With no goals to show for the quarter, the game went into the half tied, 2-2.
SJU came out of the locker room ready to play as McGee found sophomore Jake Hall from behind the net to score the first goal of his career and take a 3-2 advantage. Quinzani would go on to add his only goal of the game off of a Hurley assist. To close out the third, McGee scored his second as he scored from behind the net, taking a 5-2 lead into the final frame. The Hawks dominated the quarter as they got off 14 shots and Towson registered just one.
McGee kept the hot hand as he dove from behind the net to score his third and take a 6-2 lead with 12 minutes to play in regulation. The Tigers closed out the game with one more goal as the game ended, 6-3.
Robby Zoppo, Carl Iacona and Michael Brashears all scored a goal each as Matt Hanzsche and Sean Macguire added assists.
Ferrigan picked up the win between the pipes as he finished with 15 saves. Andrew Wascavage was credited with the loss making nine saves.
Saint Joseph’s outshot Towson, 32-28, and held an advantage in face-offs, 8-5. Both squads turned the ball over 12 times and combined to go 0-4 on extra-man opportunities.
Prior to the game this afternoon, SJU honored its seven graduation seniors – Matt Dougherty (Conestoga), Trevor Dougherty, Griffin Ferrigan, Matt Germain, Bobby Hurley, Chris Jenkins, Daniel Lieb, Augustus Quinzani, Colin Roemer, Justin Rogers and Pat Sinnott (La Salle) – for their hard work and dedication to the program over the past four season on Hawk Hill.
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