University Park, Pa. — As the Nittany Lions gear up for their first ranked matchup in the 2020 season, the biggest point of emphasis is starting Saturday's game against Yale on the right foot. Literally.
Each team boasts one of the top faceoff guys in the nation, in what is expected to be one of the best battles across the sport this season between Penn State's Gerard Arceri (St. James, N.Y.) and Yale's TD Ierlan. The familiarity each of them have with each other might be surprising to some.
"Just going into an opponent like that obviously he's a pretty well-known faceoff guy," Arceri said this week. "You just have to try and stick to what we do best, can't really get too high, can't really get too low in any situations during the game and just work our hardest."
Arceri has won 68 percent of his faceoffs through three games, and while coaching certainly has helped him develop his game, a continuity with teammates and strong leadership has gone a long way in developing the right habits from a team mentality.
"A lot of the team is really led by a pretty strong upperclassmen group, and then we obviously have some sophomores and freshmen getting time in the mix," Arceri said. "No matter who's out there, you know we trust that our guys are going to know exactly what the game plan stems from and what coaches expect. I think that has really helped us the first few games."
Both Arceri and teammate Jake Glatz (Shrewsbury, Pa.) come into Saturday feeling tested after competing against Ierlan twice last season. Given the circumstances of Saturday's No. 1 vs. No. 3 matchup, Glatz talked about the mindset needed for a meeting like this one.
"I guess it's more mental for me," Glatz said. "Just being able to know that I can help give my team a chance. Just going against Gerard every dahas just really built my confidence. Just doing whatever I can to help them is the biggest confidence booster I can provide."
Head coach Jeff Tambroni knows that even when it comes to a big matchup like this one, his team has to win the mental battles Saturday to put themselves in position to win the game.
"I think there's only so much you can do when those two guys go in there and the whistle blows and the ball comes out quickly," Tambroni said. "We're not going to change a whole lot, and I think we feel really good about Gerard as our representative going onto the faceoff. We always want to see if we can build momentum and equally as important to manage our emotions when we're not winning those battles, and do a better job defensively, of being a little bit more stout back at that end and being a little bit more efficient offensively. That's where our staff and our team need to do a little bit better job of just in real time having a better flow."
Glatz and Arceri, despite competing for the starting role at the same position, have a great relationship and help create a culture of supporting whoever is taking faceoffs.
"I would say him and I probably have one of the best relationships on the team," Arceri said. "You know, we've been best friends since we both got here and he's really become more dynamic as a faceoff guy. I kind of took him under my wing when he first got here, and I think he's really bought into the process and it shows on the field when he gets his chance."
"I think, Gerard is just as good as [Ierlan] honestly maybe even better in some occasions," Glatz said. "It all just comes down to how you're doing that day with specific matchups and whether Coach wants to put someone else in to switch it up a little bit."
"I would say we probably will go to Jake at some point, and that will not necessarily indicate that Gerard is struggling," Tambroni said. "I do think that you have to, in a game like this, utilize your resources and try to wear them down a little bit, while keeping yourself fresh at the same time. Hopefully, the momentum Jake garnered from his performance against St. Joe's will go a long way.
Yale stands as the only team that Penn State lost to last season — once in the regular season on the road, and again in the Final Four rematch in Philadelphia. Tambroni is hoping to get the monkey off his back, and notch the program's first win over the Bulldogs.
"We talked about it in our retreats when we got together as a team, way back in August," Tambroni said. "We took the team off-campus and addressed the entire season, that final game and what we thought we could have done a better job with in reflection. There are different faces on both teams, but at the same time we talked about how to prepare a little bit better for me as a head coach, as a staff, as an individual, or as a member of the team. And then in fairness to the team this year, we focused on what we think we need to do, and who our opponent is this time around."
