UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa., April 9, 2005 - The Penn State men's lacrosse team (4-5, 2-1) posted 10 goals in the first quarter to roll past ECAC rival Hobart (5-4, 1-2), 19-13. Attackman John Eremus (Rosemont, Pa.) led Penn State in scoring with four goals while three other Nittany Lions finished with three goals each.
Penn State took a 1-0 lead five seconds into the game when midfielder Greg Gurenlian (Springfield, Pa.) won the opening face-off and assisted Nate Whitaker (Great Falls, Va.) on a goal. Midfielder Will Cutler (Vienna, Va.) scored two minutes later on an assist from Mike Jacober (Providence, R.I.) to put the Lions up 2-0. Hobart found the scoreboard for the first time in the game when Daryl Veltman tallied a goal at the 10:40 mark. Penn State outscored the Statesmen 8-3 for the remainder of the first quarter to take a 10-4 lead. Midfielders Patrick Heim (Wayne, Pa.) and Will Jones (Annapolis, Md.) each notched two goals while Tommy Zichelli (Severna Park, Md.), Gil Pearsall (Carthage, N.Y.), Eremus and Cutler all posted one more goal each to end the opening quarter.
The Statesmen were able to crawl back into the game in the second quarter when they scored three unanswered goals in three minutes. Rory Melvin and Sean Reed both netted extra-man goals and Veltman scored on an assist from Matt Murphy. Gurenlian scored the only goal for Penn State in the second quarter when he notched an unassisted goal at the 7:50 mark. The Statesmen tallied two more goals at the end of the quarter from Chris Scanlon and Mike Conklin to cut the Penn State lead to 11-9 at halftime.
Both teams traded goals to open the third quarter. Veltman tallied a goal 30 seconds into the period on an assist from Scanlon. Eremus responded with an unassisted goal one minute later followed by an extra-man goal from Whitaker to put the Lions ahead 13-10. Statesman point leader Nate Hill tallied his first goal of the game with 4:02 remaining in the quarter to cut the Lions lead to two. Penn State managed two more goals in the last three minutes from Max Van Arsdale (Rochester, N.Y.) and Jones to give the Nittany Lions a four-goal cushion heading into the final 15 minutes of play.
The Lions outscored Hobart 4-2 in the fourth quarter and held the Statesmen to 10 shots. Eremus completed his hat trick one minute into the quarter on an assist from Van Arsdale to give Penn State a 16-11 lead. Christopher David scored his first goal of the game for the Statesmen, unassisted, at the 13:18 mark. Heim and Cutler both scored consecutive unassisted goals to put the Lions back up by six. Veltman scored the final Hobart tally with 3:11 remaining but Eremus sealed the victory scoring his fourth goal with 25 seconds left to bring the final score to 19-13.
Freshman goal keeper Chris Courteau (Buffalo, N.Y.) played an excellent game in goal finishing with eight saves. Statesmen goalies Dan Valente and Mike DeSantis split time in net combining for 10 saves.
The last time Penn State scored 19 goals in a game came against Army in 1999 when the Lions defeated the Cadets 19-12 in University Park.
The Nittany Lions will host St. John's on Saturday, April 16 for their final home ECAC game of the year. Penn State will then travel to Bucknell on Tuesday, April 19 in a non-conference match at 7:30 p.m.
GOAL - (ASSISTS): PSU 1st quarter-Nate Whitaker (Greg Gurenlian), Will Cutler (Mike Jacober), Patrick Heim, Will Jones (Brian Boyle), Will Cutler, John Eremus (Jesse Tarr), Will Jones, Tommy Zichelli, Gil Pearsall, Patrick Heim (Brian Boyle); 2nd quarter-Greg Gurenlian; 3rd quarter-John Eremus, Nate Whitaker (Brian Boyle), Max Van Arsdale, Will Jones; 4th quarter-John Eremus (Max Van Arsdale), Patrick Heim, Will Cutler, John Eremus.
H 1st quarter-Daryl Veltman (Nate Hill), Patrick Meade, Patrick Meade, Mike Conklin (Daryl Veltman); 2nd quarter-Rory Melvin (Daryl Veltman), Sean Reed (Daryl Veltman), Chris Scanlon (Nate Molinari), Mike Conklin (Daryl Veltman); 3rd quarter- Daryl Veltman (Chris Scanlon), Nate Hill; 4th quarter-Christopher David, Daryl Veltman.
SAVES: PSU, Chris Courteau (60 minutes, 13 goals allowed, 8 saves) H, Dan Valente (9 minutes, 8 goals allowed, 0 saves), Mike DeSantis (51 minutes, 11 goals allowed, 10 saves)
GROUNDBALLS: PSU, 45: H, 40
EMO: PSU, 1-7: H, 2-5
