PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The 20th-ranked University of Pennsylvania men's lacrosse team kept its postseason hopes alive by the narrowest of margins on Saturday, escaping from Brown with a 12-11 victory in double overtime.
Nate Lucchesi was the hero, getting inside the defense and firing a shot that beat Bears goalie Connor Foley and found the upper right corner of the goal with 2:05 left in the second extra session. That effort—the only goal Lucchesi scored on the day—came on the heels of
Jack Pelot's standout effort, the Quakers' sophomore goalie making three of his 14 saves on the day in the OT periods.
Penn (6-6, 3-3 Ivy League) has the bye in Ivy play next weekend and must wait for results from next weekend's games to find out its Ivy Tournament fate. In particular, the Quakers need Brown (6-6, 1-4) to beat Yale next Saturday in Providence.
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn outshot Brown on the day, 49-40, and had a 17-10 edge on faceoffs.
*Amazingly, the Quakers won 15 faceoffs in a row after losing eight of the first 10 on Saturday. Freshman
Quinn Ball finished the day 16-6 (.727) at the X.
*One week after scoring his first three collegiate points, senior
Alex Martin had a four-point day and recorded his first collegiate hat trick.
*Junior
Grayson McClements also recorded a hat trick on Saturday, his first at Penn.
*Junior
Davis Provost also had a three-point day, scoring once and dishing out two assists. He remains the only Penn player to score a goal and record a point in every game this season.
*Junior
Ben Beacham and freshman
Jackson Maher both finished the day with two points, each of them scoring once and assisting once.
*Penn got a pair of "pole goals" on Saturday, sophomore
Dante Vardaro going behind-the-back in the first quarter—both of his goals this season were scored in that style—and senior captain
Ryan McLaughlin netting his first goal this season and just the second of his collegiate career.
*Pelot, the Quakers' sophomore goalkeeper, finished the day with 14 saves, his seventh game this season with a save percentage of 50 percent or better.
How It Happened
Brown opened the scoring just 91 seconds into the game, but Penn tied it when Beacham and Provost ran a pick-and-roll up top that ended with Beacham finishing from the right side. Bruno scored twice in a 62-second span midway through the period to go up 3-1, and it was still 4-2 at the end of the period in spite of Vardaro's spectacular behind-the-back pole goal.
Brown turned a Penn possession into a transition goal early in the second to open its lead to 5-2, but the Quakers charged back. On an extra-man possession, Maher found Martin in front and the senior turned into a shot that was saved but bounced in. Less than three minutes later, some quick passing around the defense ended with Martin scoring from a low angle on the left side, and less than three minutes after that McClements converted on the doorstep to tie things up. Brown went back in front a minute later, but Martin completed his hat trick when the Quakers broke Bruno's ride and turned it into a transition goal. The score was tied 6-6 at the break.
Brown opened the third-quarter scoring with a goal at the end of shot clock midway through the period. However, the Quakers scored twice in a 29-second span to take their first lead of the day. Maher tied things up when he came past the left post from behind and scored on a jumper over his defender, and then McClements raced down the left alley and converted a lefty shot to make it 8-7. That score held the rest of the quarter.
It looked like Penn was going to run away with things early in the fourth. Provost doubled the Quakers' lead just 50 seconds into the period when a saved shot squirted to him and he underhanded a shot through Foley's legs. Penn then scored twice in 19 seconds, McClements surprising Foley from the left side and LSM McLaughlin netting his goal out of an odd-man rush off the ensuing faceoff. With seven minutes left, the Red and Blue's lead was still 11-7.
Brown got up off the mat. With exactly seven minutes left, Foley saved a Maher shot and the Bears turned that into a transition goal at the other end just ten seconds later. The Quakers won the faceoff and were content to bleed the clock at that point and it almost backfired, although more than four minutes went off the clock before another Bruno transition goal made it 11-9 with 2:10 to play.
Penn won the faceoff—again—but Brown pressed the action and forced a turnover. That turned into yet another goal, this one with 1:16 to play, that made the score 11-10. Amazingly, the Quakers won the next faceoff—in fact, they won all 11 draws in the second half—and could have run the clock out. Instead the Bruno press forced still another turnover, and Brown tied things with 20 seconds left.
Both teams had chances to end things in the first overtime period, but Pelot and Foley were equal to the task as Pelot made two saves and Foley made one. Brown then won the faceoff to start the second OT period—the Bears won both of the faceoffs in extra time—but Pelot's save on Brady O'Kane set the table for Lucchesi's winner.
Up Next
Penn will close out regular-season play next Friday against the University of Massachusetts. The neutral-site game with UMass will take place in Farmingdale, N.Y.
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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