Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 4/27/19
From Press Release
No.1 Penn State men’s lacrosse tops No. 20 Rutgers, 14-13, in a back-and-forth battle to take program’s first Big Ten title on Saturday afternoon at Panzer Stadium on Senior Day.
In a neck-and-neck matchup with Big Ten foe Rutgers, sophomore Jack Kelly sealed the deal, in the game that saw eight different lead changes, with less than a minute left in play finding the back of the net off an assist from redshirt junior Grant Ament (Haverford School). Kelly’s goal was his third of the game, paired with one assist for four points total.
Ament’s seven points on seven assists pushed him into the number one-spot on the Penn State’s single-season points leaderboard with 87, as well as the Big Ten lacrosse’s single-season assists record with 70
Junior Mac O’Keefe lead the Nittany Lions with five of the 14 goals in the game and two assists for a seven-point outing. O’Keefe now has 51 goals, tying the Penn State single season record, which he set in 2016.
Junior Colby Kneese came up huge for the Nittany Lions in crucial moments with 11 saves on the day. In his signature moment, with under two minutes on the clock, Kneese stuffed Rutgers attackman Adam Charalambides right on the doorstep of the goal to set up Penn State’s game-winning moment.
Sophomore Cole Willard and redshirt junior Dylan Foulds both added two goals to the Penn State effort while the freshmen duo of Jack Traynor (Malvern Prep) and TJ Malone (Haverford School) stepped up pitching in a goal each. Foulds also added two assists to the Nittany Lion effort.
Senior classmates Nick Spillane and Chris Sabia (Haverford School) made the most of their senior day on the field. Spillane dished out one assist and Sabia had one caused turnover to accompany a ground ball.
Junior Gerard Arceri dominated the ‘x’ going 18-29 with 13 ground balls.
Junior Nick Cardile (Avon Grove) gobbled up four ground and had one caused turnover to help anchor the Nittany Lion defense. Sophomore Bobby Burns helped shutdown the Scarlet Knights offense adding three ground balls and one caused turnover.
Penn State took advantage of extra-man opportunities going three-for-three on the day.
Penn State ends the regular season at 12-1 and 5-0 in the Big Ten Conference for the first time in program history.
The Nittany Lions will be the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Big Ten Tournament hosted by Rutgers. More details will follow after the conclusion of the Maryland-Johns Hopkins men’s lacrosse
