UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa., April 19, 2005 ¨C The Penn State men¡¯s lacrosse team (6-5, 3-1) earned its first road victory of the season upsetting No. 12 Bucknell (7-4, 4-1) in front of 450 fans at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium. The Lions extend their winning streak to four games with three matches left on the schedule including two conference games on the road. Junior attackman Nate Whitaker (Great Falls, Va.) tallied three goals and two assists in the game to lead Penn State in scoring.

Whitaker scored eight seconds into the first quarter to give the Lions a 1-0 lead. Sophomore attackman Brian Boyle (Derry, N.H.) then notched two consecutive goals for Penn State to increase the lead to three. Bucknell responded with four straight goals in four minutes to grab a 4-3 lead. Chris Cara scored two goals for the Bison while Kirk Klett and Brian Gargan tallied one goal each. The Lions stopped the Bucknell run when sophomore midfielder Patrick Heim (Wayne, Pa.) found the back of the net on an unassisted goal with one second remaining in the quarter to tie the score at 4-4. Penn State found the scoreboard first in the second quarter when Heim scored at the 12:50 mark. Two minutes later, defenseman Jesse Tarr (Media, Pa.) netted his first goal of the season to give the Nittany Lions a 6-4 lead. The Bison scored two straight goals from Cara and Rick Carolan in a two-minute span to tie the game at 6-6. Penn State countered again at the end of the quarter when Whitaker notched his second goal of the game on an assist from Heim. Tarr also scored his second goal of the game four minutes later at the 1:49 mark in the quarter to increase the Penn State lead to 8-6 at halftime.

Bucknell capitalized on an extra-man opportunity with 11:10 remaining in the third quarter when Patrick Christensen scored to cut the Nittany Lion lead to 8-7. Whitaker completed his hat trick 20 seconds later to regain a two-goal lead for Penn State. Junior attackman John Eremus (Rosemont, Pa.) added a goal for the Lions at the 4:24 mark to give Penn State a 10-7 advantage heading into the fourth quarter.

Eremus opened the final 15 minutes of play with a tally at the 12:15 mark to increase the Nittany Lion lead to four goals. Bucknell rallied to score three straights goals; two from Christensen and one from Cara but it was the last scoring either team would see, as the Nittany Lions would hold off a Bucknell comeback to win 11-10.

Freshman goal keeper Chris Courteau (Buffalo, N.Y.) was strong once again in net finishing with 15 saves. Bison goalie Matt Baran made 13 saves in 59 minutes of play. Penn State will travel to New Brunswick, N.J. to face Rutgers in an Eastern College Athletic Conference battle on April 23. The Lions will then try to avenge a last season loss to Villanova when they host the Wildcats on April 29 at Jeffrey Field.