PHILADELPHIA – The 20th-ranked University of Pennsylvania men's lacrosse team gave up the first four goals on Tuesday night to Saint Joseph's. The Quakers were playing catch-up the rest of the night at Franklin Field, except that they never did. Penn got within two goals on eight separate occasions, and finally got within one with 3:51 to play. The tying goal never came, however, as the Hawks escaped with the 12-11 win.
 
In what was perhaps a fitting conclusion to Tuesday night's game, Penn had a 6-on-4 extra-man opportunity for the final 25 seconds but could not convert. Instead, a pass to a player on the right post was mishandled, which allowed SJU to pick up the ground ball and launch it to the other end of the field. Penn quickly recovered the ball but could not get it back to the offensive end before the final horn.
 
This was Saint Joseph's second win over Penn in the 15-game series, the other coming two years ago also on the Penn campus. The Hawks have now won eight in a row and are 8-3 overall. Penn, meanwhile, has dropped four of its last five contests and is now 6-7 overall.
 
Kevin McGeary scored four goals and had an assist, while Tyler Dunn went for three goals and an assist. Junior Richie Lenskold had a superb day on the face-off X, winning 17 draws against three different Saint Joseph's face-off men. It was not enough.
 
After the 4-0 deficit, McGeary scored twice unassisted to get it to 4-2. From there the teams traded goals to 5-3, 6-4, 7-5, 8-6, 9-7 and 10-8 before Shane Fable and Chris Blewitt scored just 1:27 apart to put the Hawks back up by four at 12-8.
 
Penn had a final answer. Reilly Hupfeldt scored in a man-up situation off a McGeary feed with 5:15 left, and just 17 seconds later Dunn grabbed the ground ball from the face-off and singlehandedly walked it in for 12-10. Simon Mathias made it 12-11 on a right-handed bounce shot—the junior's only goal and point of the night—but that would be it.
 
Both goalies had seven saves on the night, Reed Junkin getting the action in the Penn cage.
 
Up Next
Penn closes out its regular season on Saturday at Dartmouth, the Quakers will face off with the Big Green at noon in Hanover, N.H.