Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 2/4/23 – From Press Release
The Penn State men’s lacrosse team got help from a number of Philly grads and opened the 2023 season in style with a rousing 21-11 victory over Lafayette on Saturday afternoon.
HOW IT HAPPENED
With 14:47 left in the first quarter, sophomore Matt Traynor (Malvern Prep) scored the opening goal of the game to put the Nittany Lions ahead 1-0.
Penn State scored four more unanswered goals in the first quarter coming off the sticks Kevin Winkoff, Matt Traynor (on the man advantage), Mac Costin (Haverford School), and Mark Sickler (Hershey) to give the Nittany Lions a commanding 5-0 lead.
Lafayette answered with a pair of goals with 3:52 and 3:11 to go in the quarter to narrow the Nittany Lion lead to 5-2.
Kyle Aldridge had the last word in the quarter scoring a goal with 20 second remaining to put Penn State ahead 6-2 after one.
The Nittany Lions started the second quarter with two straight goals coming off the sticks of Matt Traynor and Hudson Bohn to give Penn State an 8-2 lead with 14:12 remaining.
The Leopards added one goal coming with 10:54 remaining in the quarter to make the score 8-3.
The Nittany Lions added two more goals from Matt Traynor and Chris Jordan to make the score 10-3 with 7:56 remaining in the quarter.
Lafayette countered with three unanswered goals to make the score 10-6 with 3:56 remaining in the half.
Penn State closed the half with two goals from Jack Traynor (Malvern Prep) and Michael Faraone to make the score 12-6 after the first half.
Matt Traynor tallied a game-high and career-high five goals. TJ Malone (Haverford School) added two goals and three assists, Costin had a goal and an assist and Jeb Brenfleck (Academy of the New Church) scored once. On defense, Pup Buono (Malvern Prep) had four groundballs and two caused turnovers and freshman Ryan O’Connor (Springfield-Delco) collected one goal, three groundballs and two turnovers.
For Lafayette, Charlie Cunniffe (Episcopal Academy) had two goals and three assists, Peter Lehman (Council Rock North) had a goal and two groundballs, freshman Jack Irish (Malvern Prep) had a goal and a groundball, Gunnar Bogowowski (Germantown Academy) had a groundball and a caused turnover and freshman goalie Joe Doherty (Malvern Prep) posted 15 saves in goal.
STATS AND NOTES
Hudson Bohn won 22 of 30 faceoffs in the victory.
GOALTENDING
Jack Fracyon picked up his first win in net this season tallying 13 saves.
Aleric Fyock finished the game playing a total of 8:42 to close out the win.
UP NEXT
The Nittany Lions hit the road on Sunday, Feb. 12 when they travel to face Villanova. Face-off starts at 12 p.m.
