The #1 Ranked, Penn State Nittany Lions (2-0) opened the road portion of their 2029 DI Men’s Lacrosse season and faced the challenge of the #18 Villanova Wildcats (0-1) on a chilly Saturday afternoon.
Villanova hung in with the juggernaut Lions for a short bit.
Jack Kelly (4g,1a) opened the scoring off a nice feed from TJ Malone and Penn State had a 1-0 lead at 11:44.
Villanova answered when Eric Overbay (1g) and Keegan Khan (3g) got the home team in front, 2-1.
Mac O’Keefe turned playmaker to assist on a Malone (1g,1a) tally and a taut battle was on.
The back and forth continued with Matt Campbell (3g) for Villanova and Kelly sharing net benders to keep the game even, 3-3.
With just over a minute remaining, Dylan Foulds (3g) put the Lions up by a 4-3 score.
Patrick Daly (2g) countered and the first came to a close, 4-4.
O’Keefe made it 5-4 before PSU ripped three goals in only :58 seconds supplied by Nate Butler (1g), Foulds and Gerard Arceri (1g) to put Penn State in a groove.
Thirty seconds would elapse before Grant Ament (3g) stole the spotlight with a pair of goals in the span of :28 to give Penn State a 10-4 lead.
Corey McManus (1g) put an end to the run and Villanova looked to get on the comeback trail.
Not so fast was the Lions reply and the half ended after Jack Traynor (1g) converted an O’Keefe set up and O’Keefe (4g, 3a) bagged another and PSU was large and in charge, 12-5.
At 10:52, Campbell scored and was followed a minute and fourteen seconds later by Khan’s second.
The partisan crowd started thinking a comeback would happen.
Their joy suffered a blow when O’Keefe hit the net just :39 later. It was the final goal of the quarter and the combatants went to the final 15:00 with Villanova facing a huge uphill battle, trailing 13-7.
Patrick Daly cut it to 13-8 but Penn State slammed the door and an exclamation point on the proceedings with goals from Kelly, Ament and O’ Keefe to get the final to 16-8.
Dis and Dat: In their two games, Penn State has outscored the opponents. 35-19.
O’Keefe has now notched 10 goals with 3 on the man up.
Gerard Arceri was, once again, dominant from the “X”, 21 of 32.
Loose balls were tilted to the victors, 34-18 and shots on goal went the same way, 31-19.
Kevin has followed and promoted the game of lacrosse since May 19, 1974.
The same day the Philadelphia Flyers won the Cup, the Philadelphia Wings were introduced to Neibauer and Philadelphia.
Kevin has covered many sports, including baseball, football, basketball, and.. lacrosse. A former licensed football referee and baseball umpire, Kevin brings a unique insight to his game coverage.
A published writer in JustHockey Magazine, Kevin covered the American Hockey League as well as a monthly story on a pugilist where Kevin used the pen name, The Rink Rat. Neibauer turned his attentions to lacrosse for a few years and does his part, whether podcasting or writing to grow the game. Kevin branched out to his roots and currently provides insight for all Philadelphia teams for Edge of Philly as well as his full-time duties with LaxPhilly.
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