March 19, 2016
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- No. 20 Penn State men's lacrosse (5-3) fell short in an 11-9 loss to UMass (4-4) Saturday afternoon at the Penn State Lacrosse Field.
Junior Mike Sutton led a group of six Nittany Lion scorers with three goals for his first hat trick of the season. Freshman Grant Ament finished second on the team with two goals, while also dishing out a team-high four assists for six points. Juniors Nick Aponte and Brian Prestreau, redshirt freshman Matt Florence and freshman Kevin Hill also added one goal apiece.
Senior James Burke led the team with five ground balls, while also causing one turnover. Junior Peter Triolo led the team with two caused turnovers, while also adding one ground ball.
"We put a lot of pressure on our defense today, again, and I credit UMass -- they did a really good job of being very deliberate in the offensive end and that put us in a very impatient state offensively," head coach Jeff Tambroni said.
The Minutemen out-shot the Nittany Lions 41-21, while also winning the ground ball battle, 22-20. UMass was also helped out by a 16-for-24 showing from the faceoff "x."
"We had our chances. We had some chances today -- not as many. I just never felt like we had any rhythm or momentum in the offensive end based off possession time," Tambroni said.
Sutton opened the scoring for the Nittany Lions, sending a rocket into the net to put Penn State on top, 1-0 with 11:46 remaining in the first quarter. The Minutemen answered back to even the score, 1-1, but Sutton spun around and hit the top right corner of the net for his second goal of the frame to lift Penn State ahead 2-1 with 5:18 left in the quarter. Ament followed with another goal just 2:05 later to send the Nittany Lions ahead by two, 3-1.
UMass broke up the scoring streak with a goal with less than three minutes remaining in the first quarter. Penn State regrouped and responded with another goal from Sutton with 2:09 left on the clock in the first quarter, sending the Nittany Lions into the second quarter with a two-goal lead, 4-2.
The Minutemen opened the second quarter with back-to-back goals to tie the score, 4-4 with 10:45 remaining in the stanza. Ament looked to spark some momentum with his second goal of the afternoon, but UMass responded with two straight to take their first lead of the game, 6-5 with 1:18 remaining in the first half.
A pair of man-up goals from Hill and Prestreau in the third quarter were not enough to get the Nittany Lions back on track as UMass added three more goals to widen the deficit to two, 9-7, heading into the final quarter.
The Minutemen scored two consecutive goals in the fourth quarter to pull ahead by as many as four, 11-7, with 11:09 remaining in the game. Aponte looked to open a scoring streak with a goal with 10:34 left in the quarter, but the Nittany Lions could not settle into a rhythm. Florence made one final attempt spark the comeback with a goal with 1:19 remaining, but UMass held off the pressure as time expired.
Penn State is on the road for the next two weeks, kicking off the road swing with its final non-conference matchup of the season. The Nittany Lions will travel to Dallas, Texas to take on top-ranked Denver Saturday, March 26 at SMU's Gerald Ford Stadium on a neutral field as part of the 2016 Patriot Cup.
NOTES: Penn State moves to 6-13 in the all-time series against the Minutemen ... Each of the last five games between Penn State and UMass have been decided by an average of 2.6 goals, with three of the five games within the span decided by just two goals ... Mike Sutton tallied his first hat trick of the season with three goals ... Grant Ament notched his second-highest assist total with four helpers for his third straight multi-assist game ... Nick Aponte has posted at least one point in each of the last 26 consecutive games dating back to April 5, 2014 ... Kevin Hill's goal marks his third man-up goal of the season, which ranks first on the team.