UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa., March 13, 2004 -The Penn State men's lacrosse team (2-3, 1-1) fell to No. 6 Georgetown (2-1, 1-0) in its first Eastern College Athletic Conference game of the year 10-8. Sophomore Nate Whitaker (Great Falls, Va.) continued his scoring streak at 19 games as he tallied two goals and one assist while junior Will Culter (Vienna, Va.) finished with two goals and one assist as well.

The Nittany Lions grabbed an 8-6 lead at the beginning of the fourth quarter as Whitaker tallied an extra-man goal on an assist from Patrick Heim (Wayne, Pa.). Georgetown responded with two goals in 30 seconds to tie the game at 8-8. Hoyas' attackman Neal Goldman then scored a breakaway goal at the 6:28 mark in the quarter, which proved to be the game-winning tally as Georgetown notched one more goal to clinch the victory 10-8.

Penn State opened the third quarter stopping two consecutive Georgetown extra-man opportunities. Ten second later the Hoyas were awarded another man advantage chance and they capitalized on a goal from Sean Denihan to give Georgetown a 6-5 lead. The Lions answered with a goal from junior Mike Jacober (Providence, R.I.) to tie the game and a score from senior Charlie Perry (Port Washington, N.Y.) with 19 second left in the quarter to give Penn State a 7-6 advantage heading into the final 15 minutes of play.

The Nittany Lions opened the scoring in the second quarter with and unassisted goal from Cutler at the 6:33 mark. Junior Will Jones (Annapolis, Md.) then recorded his first goal of the day to give Penn State a 5-2 lead. Neal Goldman notched an extra-man goal four minutes later to give Georgetown its first goal of the second quarter. The Hoyas then rallied on two more goals from Brice Queener and Brodie Merrill in the last 20 seconds before the half to tie the game at 5-5. Georgetown tallied the first goal of the game on a strong shot from Wes Trice at the top of the crease. Penn State countered by scoring three consecutive goals from Cutler, Jacober, and Whitaker in a four-minute span to take a 3-1 lead. The Hoyas were able to notch one more goal before the end of the quarter as Kevin Langtry found the back of the net on an assist from Walid Hajj who finished with four assists in the game.

Senior goalkeeper Mike Stoltz (Hereford, Md.) made eight saves in his second consecutive start while Georgetown goalkeeper Rich D'Andrea finished with 10 saves in the game. Penn State will travel to Colorado on Sunday, Mar. 21 to battle with the Denver Pioneers in a non-conference battle. The Lions will then return home on Saturday, Apr. 3 to host the Massachusetts Minutemen in an ECAC match at 12:00 p.m.

GOAL - (ASSISTS): PSU 1st quarter-Will Cutler - (Nate Whitaker), Mike Jacober, Nate Whitaker - (Patrick Heim); 2nd quarter-Will Cutler, Will Jones - (Will Cutler); 3rd quarter-Mike Jacober, Charlie Perry - (Patrick Heim); 4th quarter- Nate Whitaker - (Patrick Heim); GU 1st quarter-Wes Trice, Kevin Langtry - (Walid Hajj); 2nd quarter-Neal Goldman - (Walid Hajj), Brice Queener - (Neal Goldman), Brodie Merrill; 3rd quarter-Sean Denihan - (Walid Hajj); 4th quarter-Trevor Casey - (Walid Hajj), Wes Trice, Neal Goldman, Trevor Casey - (Sean Denihan).

SAVES: PSU, Mike Stoltz (60 minutes, 10 goals allowed, 8 saves) GU: Rich D'Andrea (60:00 minutes, 8 goals allowed, 10 saves)

GROUNDBALLS: PSU, 17: GU, 26

EMO: PSU, 1-4: GU, 2-9