PHILADELPHIA – In front of the usual strong alumni contingent, the No. 12 University of Pennsylvania men's lacrosse team used a strong second half to pull away from Brown Saturday at Franklin Field.
Saturday's game was the Ivy League opener for both teams. The Quakers improved to 5-2 overall while the Bears remain winless at 0-6.
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn won despite being outshot on the day, 43-29, as
Emmet Carroll had another outstanding day with 16 saves (.727 save percentage).
*Junior
Tynan Walsh led Penn's attack with four points, scoring twice and dishing out two assists.
*Senior
Cam Rubin is heating up; he had three goals on the day.
*
Luke DiNola also was a multi-goal scorer on the day, with two.
*Penn's other goal scorers on Saturday were
Ben Smith,
Robert Schain,
Anthony McMullan, and
Casey Mulligan.
*The UVA transfer
Connell Kumar had two assists on the day, while
James Shipley and
Edward Arnold had one each.
*Brown got two goals each from Jackson Wolfram and Aidan McLane, while Ben Locke had two assists. The Bears' keepers—there were four of them on the day—combined for eight saves.
How It Happened
Penn never trailed in Saturday's contest, although the Bears hung around into the early part of the third quarter.
The Quakers went up just 1:16 into the game, Kumar firing a pass through the defense to DiNola on the left side for the first goal of the day. The teams then battled almost the rest of the period scoreless, but Penn made it 2-0 late; after fending off a one-minute penalty, Walsh got the ball behind and fed Smith unmarked in front and the junior converted from about 10 yards out.
Brown got on the board in the first minute of the second, taking advantage of a Penn turnover for a transition score, and then it looked like the Bears had tied it before a video review wiped out the goal. No matter, on another EMO McLane scored from the right side off a Wertheim feed. Penn's only goal in the period came less than a minute later, Schain beating his man and going lefty from distance for the tally. That goal held up, and the Quakers led 3-2 at the break.
Brown again knotted things up nearly three minutes into the third, another Penn turnover leading to a transition goal for the Bears.
At that point, Penn took over. Rubin got the run started, picking up a loose ball in front, beating a defender, then rocketing a shot over the goalie's right shoulder. Not 90 seconds later, McMullan grabbed a ground ball in Penn's defensive end and took it from there, going all the way down the field and beating the Brown keeper to the lower left side. Walsh got on the board a little more than two minutes after that, taking a Shipley feed and firing a low shot from a low angle that snuck inside the far post. That pushed the Quakers in front, 6-3.
Brown got one back late in the period, but then Walsh scored off an Arnold feed in transition (after a Carroll save at the other end). Rubin, who had started the scoring binge, then bookended it with two more a little more than a minute apart—one right, one lefty—and the Quakers took a 9-4 lead into the final quarter.
The fun continued into the fourth, DiNola netting his second from another Walsh feed, before Brown scored twice in less than a minute to make it 10-6 with a little less than nine minutes remaining. However, the defense shut the Bears down the rest of the way, and Mulligan highlighted the day when he picked up a saved shot in front and put home a behind-the-back shot that closed out the scoring.
Up Next
The Quakers renew their city rivalry with Saint Joseph's on Tuesday, facing off with the Hawks at 5 p.m. at Franklin Field.
For the latest on Penn men's lacrosse, follow @PennMensLax on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.
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