Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 3/9/24
From Press Releases
The #13 University of Pennsylvania men’s lacrosse team closed its three-game road trip today with an 11-8 win over Villanova on this afternoon in te annual Farrell Cup.
Penn had three scorers tally a pair of goals in the win, with Luke DiNola, Griffin Scane, and Ben Smith accounting for most of the Quakers’ offense. On the other end of the field, goalkeeper Emmet Carroll continued his hot streak to start the season, saving 16 of 24 shots faced to dock a 0.667 save percentage to end the game.
Game Notes
*The victory marks the 100th win for head coach Mike Murphy at the helm of the Red and Blue.
*The reigning Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week, Brendan Lavelle, continued to be a force on the defensive end of the field, causing a team-high two turnovers while scooping up a Quaker-leading six ground balls.
*Junior Smith dished out two goals to go along with the two he scored to lead the offense with four points. Scane was right behind Smith with a trio of points to account for a career-high tally for the sophomore.
* Matt Licata paced Villanova (3-3) in scoring with four points on a pair of goals and assists. Thomas McIntire contributed two goals and an assist, Lucas Newton added a goal plus an apple and three other players appeared in the scoring column for the Wildcats.
* ‘Nova’s Justin Coppola won 17 of the 22 faceoffs he took in the game while grad transfer Stephen Zupicich led the game with a quartet of caused turnovers. Anthony Wilson made eight saves between the pipes for the ‘Cats and defenseman Reid Colwell added three ground balls and a trio of caused turnovers. Colin Michener (Penn Charter) scored once.
Farrell Cup
The Farrell Cup is played in honor of James (Penn ’18) and Michael (Villanova ’23) Farrell, who were tragically killed in a car accident in 2021. James played four years of collegiate lacrosse at Penn and was the team captain in 2018 while Michael was a Villanova School of Business student and was the team captain of Villanova’s club lacrosse team.
How It Happened
The game opened just like Penn’s five other matchups, with the opposing team striking first within the first few minutes to lead. With 9:26 on the clock, junior Connell Kumar accepted a feed from Smith to net his second as a Quaker to tie the game at one.
Kumar’s goal started a run for the Red and Blue as senior Matt Palazzi scored his first of the year to put Penn up 2-1 with five minutes left of the quarter. Thirty seconds later, DiNola caught a pass from fellow junior Casey Mulligan to double the lead. Right as time was expiring, Villanova’s Colin Michener snuck one past Carroll to slash the lead to 3-2 after the first.
The Wildcats carried their momentum into the second quarter, tying the game for the second and final time two minutes in. The Red and Blue retaliated with three straight goals to create a deficit Villanova could not cross. Senior Cam Rubin started the rally around the six-minute mark with a rocket into the upper corner of goalkeeper Anthony Wilson’s net to cut the tie. The Quakers kept it going with back-to-back unassisted goals from James Shipley and Leo Hoffman to push the lead to 6-3.
With less than three minutes on the clock, Luke Raymond ended the scoring drought for Villanova, but junior Smith answered right back with his 11th goal of the season off a ground ball from freshman Anthony McMullan to push Penn ahead 7-4 at the break.
The Wildcats upped their offense coming out of halftime, as Thomas McIntire scored two straight goals to bring Villanova within one with 12:56 on the clock. The Cats continued to hold the pace for most of the quarter, leaving the Quakers off the board till Smith found Scane down the middle with 4:56 left to push Penn forward 8-6.
The home team was not going down quietly, cutting the lead to a goal with four minutes remaining. Right before the buzzer, Mulligan scooped up a ground ball that he sent down to DiNola, who nailed it under the crossbar to extend the lead to 9-7 heading into the final frame.
Licata tried to muster up a spark, scoring with 12:28 on the clock, but the Quaker offense handled business in the quarter. Scane tallied his second of the game six minutes after the Wildcat goal, and Smith followed with his second to lengthen the lead to 11-8.
Keeper Carroll held strong in the final five minutes, stopping McIntire’s shot to keep the Wildcats at single-digit goals to end the game.
