STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - April 19, 2003 - The Penn State men's lacrosse team (6-5, 3-2) continues its hunt for an NCAA Tournament bid after defeating the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers (9-3, 2-1) 7-6 in the seventh annual "Friendship Cup" today. The victory for the Lions marked the fifth consecutive win of the season. The Lions have not had a winning streak this long since 1997 when Penn State won six straight games.

Penn State brought a 6-3 lead into the final 15 minutes of play. Rutgers notched two consecutive goals to cut the Lions lead to one. Sophomore Will Cutler (St. Johns College/Vienna, Va.) scored next for Penn State on an unassisted goal at the 11:23 mark in the quarter to give Penn State a 7-5 lead. Rutgers midfielder Jeff Duca tallied his second goal of the period on a man-up opportunity to bring the Scarlet Knights within one again however it was the last scoring from either team as Penn State completed the upset 7-6.

Both teams combined to score five goals in the third quarter. Duca scored first in the period for Rutgers as he completed the day as the leading scorer for the Scarlet Knights with a hat trick. Senior Captain Marshall Feldman (Severn, Davidsonville, Md.) notched his second goal of the game on an unassisted tally to give the Lions a 4-2 lead. Penn State then increased its lead with two more goals coming from senior R.J. Charles (Bridgewater-Raritan/Martinsville, N.J.) who scored his first career goal and freshman Nate Whitaker (Thomas Jefferson/Alexandria, Va.) who improved his scoring streak to 11 games.

The second quarter consisted of a defensive battle as only one goal was scored. Rutgers junior Delby Powless notched the lone goal of the quarter on an assist from Tim White for the Knights' first goal of the game. Penn State was held to seven shots in the period however the Lions still led at halftime 3-1. Penn State opened the game shutting out Rutgers 3-0 in the first quarter. Freshman Elliot Jones (Bullis School/Potomac, Md.) and Marshall Feldman scored the first two goals of the game in a span of 44 seconds. Sophomore Derek Howells (Niskayuna/Niskayuna, N.Y.) tallied a late goal in the quarter with 22 seconds left on an assist from senior Luke Ogelsby (The Haverford School/Bryn Mawr, Pa.) to give the Lions the three goal advantage heading into the second quarter.

Senior goal keeper Chris Garrity (St. Mary's/Annapolis, Md.) made 14 saves in the match putting him in the sixth spot all time on the Penn State Career Saves list with 394 career saves. Garrity jumped former

Penn State goal keeper Chip Robertson who finished his career with 390 saves.

Penn State will finish its road schedule when the team travels to Charlottesville, Va. to take on the Virginia Cavaliers on April 26 at 1:00 p.m. The Lions will then host Ohio State in its season finale on Saturday, May 3, at 2:30 p.m.

--LIONS-

GOAL - (ASSISTS): PSU 1st quarter-Elliott Jones, Marshall Feldman, Derek Howells - (Luke Ogelsby); 2nd quarter-None; 3rd quarter-Marshall Feldman, R.J. Charles, Nate Whitaker - (Marshall Feldman); 4th quarter-Will Cutler. Rutgers 1st quarter-None; 2nd quarter-Delby Powless - (Tim White); 3rd quarter-Jeffrey Duca - (Nick Schmidt), Leif Blomquist; 4th quarter-Ken Springer - (Tim White), Jeffrey Duca, Jeffrey Duca - (Ken Springer).

SAVES: PSU, Chris Garrity (60:00 minutes, 6 goals allowed, 14 saves) Rutgers, Greg Havalchak (60:00 minutes, 7 goals allowed, 14 saves)

GROUNDBALLS: PSU, 32: Rutgers, 25

EMO: PSU, 0-1: Rutgers, 2-4

FACE-OFFS: PSU, 8-16: Rutgers, 8-16