Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 5/27/23
From Press Release
Duke men’s lacrosse midfielder Garrett Leadmon scored a controversial diving goal on the crease 1:05 into overtime to send the top-seeded Blue Devils to Championship Monday with a 16-15 victory over Penn State in front of 32,107 fans today at Lincoln Financial Field. The Blue Devils advance to their seventh NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Championship game vs. Notre Dame, a 13-12 overtime winner over Virginia.
Leadmon finished with a hat trick, the sixth of his career, while Brennan O’Neill had three goals and an assist to lead all Blue Devil scorers. Junior Jake Naso was excellent at the faceoff dot, winning 22-of-34, including the one in overtime, picking up 13 ground balls and scoring two goals and an assist.
Replays showed Leadmon’s foot appeared to cross onto the crease on the winning goal, but the referee’s ruling stood since video replays are used in those scoring situations, according to NCAA championship rules.
The defeat denied the underdog Nittany Lions their first NCAA championship berth and spoiled an incredible six-goal, two-assist game by grad student TJ Malone (Haverford School).
“Yeah, it was really tough to see kind of how that ended,” Malone said. “But that’s how it happened. Just our offense was playing amazing all game, so it was just fun to be a part of that.
Kevin Winkoff added a goal and five assists, Matt Traynor (Malvern Prep) scored twice, Jake Morin (Garnet Valley) had a goal and three assists, Mac Costin (Haverford School) had a goal and two assists and Jack Traynor (Malvern Prep) had a goal and an assist.
“Yeah, we’re definitely not a group to sit up there and point fingers and kind of ask, ‘What if?'” said Jack Traynor. “Unfortunately, that was the circumstance. Just try to hold our heads high and be proud of what we accomplished.”
The Lions played from behind most of the game, but forced ties at 13-13, 14-14 and 15-15. The Nittany Lions had a chance to win it in regulation when they had a 30-second EMO opportunity in the final minute, but they failed to get a shot off.
“We’ve been playing from behind most of the year, and we were exactly where we wanted to be,” Malone said. “We knew if we were close in that fourth quarter then they were going to start feeling the pressure, and that’s exactly where we wanted to be, and that’s where we play our best. We just couldn’t get over that edge.”
The crowd at the Linc was packed with a throng of Penn State supporters. The Lion players believe the success they had this season has won over a lot of lax fans.
“I would hope so,” Traynor said. “I think that when we go out there, one thing we try to do is just play hard, and I think you’re going to attract a fan base if you’re team is going to go out there and play as hard as you possibly can.
“We might not always be the most talented group, there might be some teams out there with more talent than us, but we play hard, and hopefully people see that and appreciate that from us.
Said Malone: “Yeah, I think the culture that this senior class has continued to build is in a better spot, we hope, and we hope that the younger guys can continue to build on it and to sustain it for the future.
“I think the mindset was just if we play tough and we play together, then it gives us the best opportunity to win, and we knew that the pressure was on them to kind of win, and we didn’t have any of that pressure, so we just went out there and tried our best and stuck together throughout the whole time, and I’m just so proud of the team for that.”
HOW IT HAPPENED
Duke and Penn State scored back-to-back goals to open the game with a 2-2 score with 8:31 remaining in the quarter.
Jeb Brenfleck (Academy of the New Church) capitalized on the man-up opportunity and scored his sixth goal of the season to put Penn State ahead 3-2.
Both sides each exchanged goals following the Brenfleck goal before Duke went on a 3-0 scoring run to end the first quarter with the Blue Devils ahead 6-4.
After Duke opened the scoring in the second quarter with 11:40 remaining, Jack and Matt Traynor (Malvern Prep) each tallied a goal forty seconds apart from each other to cut the Duke lead to 7-6.
Duke answered with a pair of goals before Malone closed the half with a goal coming with 4:38 remaining to make the score 9-7 at the midway point.
Both sides opened the third quarter with a pair of goals each before Luke Mercer found the back of the net with 7:43 left in the quarter to make the score 11-10 in favor of the Blue Devils.
With 0:35 seconds remaining in the quarter TJ Malone closed it out with his fifth goal of the game to cut the Duke lead to 13-12.
Morin started the fourth quarter with his first goal of the game coming with 9:35 remaining in the quarter to tie the game up at 13.
Both sides each added two goals apiece sending the game into overtime as Malone scored the game tying goal with 5:07 remaining in regulation.
GOALTENDING
Fracyon stopped 12 shots and allowed 16 goals to drop his record to 11-5 to conclude his season.
STATS AND NOTES
Malone now sits tied for second in program history in points in a single NCAA tournament game off six goals and two assists for eight points. Grant Ament is the only Nittany Lion to register more points in an NCAA tournament game.
Penn State drops its record in the NCAA tournament to 4-6 and still looks for its first win in a national semifinal game.
This is the first overtime the Nittany Lions have played in an NCAA tournament game.
16 goals is the second highest amount ever scored by Penn State in an NCAA tournament semifinal game.
