ALBANY, N.Y. – The University of Pennsylvania men's lacrosse team used a five-goal explosion early in the second quarter to get a leg up on No. 20 University at Albany, and the Quakers never let the Great Danes get back level on the way to a 15-10 victory Tuesday afternoon at Casey Stadium.
 
Penn evened its record at 1-1 in getting first-year head coach Taylor Wray his first win overseeing the Quakers. UAlbany fell to 0-2 and remains winless in five matchups with Penn all-time.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn used a sizable advantage on the face-off Tuesday, winning the X 21-8 as Ethan Costanzo was 11-16 (.688) and freshman Quinn Ball was 8-9 (.889).
 
*Penn also outshot UAlbany, 40-35, and put 23 on goal compared to the Great Danes who had 19.
 
*Junior Davis Provost led the attack for the second straight game, scoring four goals and adding an assist for five points. He had 10 shots on the day.
 
*Senior Griffin Scane also had four goals—three of them coming in the decisive second quarter—on eight shots.
 
*Freshman Jackson Maher announced himself in a big way, with two goals and three assists for five points.
 
*Junior Ben Beacham and senior Isaac Korus were also two-goal scorers on Tuesday, Beacham adding an assist.
 
*Junior Leo Hoffman had Penn's other goal and still another junior, Grayson McClements, dished off two assists.
 
*Jack Pelot once again got the start in goal and made nine saves on the day.
 
*UAlbany was led by Silas Richmond, who scored four goals and dished off three assists for seven points. Jackson Palumb and Koleton Marquis both finished the day with two goals and an assist, while Ryan Doherty scored once and dished off two helpers.
 
How It Happened
The first quarter gave little indication of the shootout ahead. Nearly eight minutes went by before UAlbany opened up the scoring, and it wasn't until 2:16 was left in the period that Penn got its first goal. Even that came only after a successful challenge by Coach Wray after the referees initially ruled no goal on Korus' shot from up top. UAlbany's Richmond scored with just nine seconds left in the quarter and the hosts were up after the first 15, 2-1.
 
The Quakers walked the Danes in the second.
 
It took exactly nine second for the Red and Blue to draw level, Constanzo winning his faceoff and feeding Maher who one-timed a pass to Provost on the doorstep. Less than two minutes later, Beacham rifled home a shot to give Penn a lead it wouldn't relinquish. Scane followed up with the next two, the second from McClements, and then Hoffman ran down the right side and fired a low-angle shot into the far corner. It was a five-goal run that took a little more than six minutes and had Penn in front, 6-2.
 
UAlbany finally responded on a Daniel Kesselring goal, but Scane answered unassisted just 18 seconds later and Penn took a 7-4 lead to halftime.
 
The Great Danes scored the first two goals in the first 2:18 of the third quarter to get within 7-6, but a little more than a minute later Maher scored from a low angle and then two minutes after that he fed Scane for a turnaround in front at the end of an extra-man opportunity. That got the margin back to three, at 9-6.
 
UAlbany tried again. A Palumb goal made it 9-7 into the media timeout, and then Richmond scored on the doorstep to get the margin to one again. However, Penn again answered as another Beacham snipe from the right side at the end of the shot clock (and just 16 seconds on the game clock) made it 10-8 heading into the fourth.
 
Provost scored 90 seconds into the fourth to make it 11-8, and then neither team scored until midway through the period. UAlbany was running out of time and made it 11-9 on a Marquis goal, but Provost had the response just 46 seconds later to get the margin back to three. Nearly three minutes would go by before Marquis scored again, but a little more than a minute later a saved shot led to a scrum in front of the UAlbany goal and the ball popped over to Maher, who potted it into an open goal. That made the score 13-10 with 2:33 to play and proved to be the knockout blow, Provost and Korus tacking on insurance goals in the game's final 1:36.
 
Up Next
Penn is back at home for its next three games, starting Saturday when the Quakers host Delaware on Franklin Field at noon.
 
For the latest on Penn men's lacrosse, follow @PennMensLax on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.