Washington D.C., May 8, 2005 ¨C The No. 15 Penn State men¡¯s lacrosse team (9-5, 5-1) upset No. 7 Georgetown (9-4, 4-2) in the Eastern College Athletic Conference finale 13-12 in overtime in front of 1385 fans at North Kehoe Field. Junior attackman Nate Whitaker (Great Falls, Va.) led the Lions in scoring with five goals while sophomore attackman Brian Boyle (Derry, N.H.,) tallied three goals and one assist.

Georgetown¡¯s Nick Miaritis tallied the first goal of the game on an extra-man opportunity 12:28 into the first quarter. Ryan Still collected a ground ball off of a Penn State turnover five minutes later and ran the length of the field to score an unassisted goal, which put the Hoyas up 2-0. Penn State found the scoreboard with 4:30 remaining in the period when sophomore attackman Boyle netted an extra-man goal on an assist from Max Van Arsdale (Rochester, N.Y.). Penn State completely shifted the momentum scoring four more goals in the next 1:07. Whitaker (Great Falls, Va.) tied the game at 2-2 when he scored his first goal of the game on an assist from Will Culter (Vienna, Va.). Twelve seconds later, Tommy Zichelli (Severna Park, Md.) put the Lions ahead 3-2 with an unassisted tally off the ensuing face-off. Senior captain Mike Jacober (Providence, R.I.) notched an unassisted goal shortly after and junior midfielder Greg Gurenlian (Springfield, Pa.) tallied a goal off of the upcoming face-off to give PSU a 5-2 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Whitaker scored his second goal of the game at the 12:16 mark in the second quarter on an assist from senior Jesse Tarr (Media, Pa.) to put Penn State up 6-2. The Hoyas put an end to the Lions scoring streak when Brendan Cannon fired a low shot to cut the Nittany Lion lead to three goals. Hoya attackman Trevor Casey picked up a ground ball and passed a shot underneath Penn State goalkeeper Chris Courteau (Buffalo, N.Y.) to bring the score 6-4 in favor of the Lions. Scott Kahoe netted Georgetown¡¯s third straight goal with 17 seconds left in the quarter to bring the score to 6-5 in favor of Penn State at halftime. Georgetown out shot the Nittany Lions 23-12 in the half and collected 21 ground balls to Penn State¡¯s 14.

Penn State opened the third quarter with an unassisted goal from sophomore Gil Pearsall (Carthage, N.Y.) to give the Lions a 7-5 lead.

Georgetown found the scoreboard in the third quarter when Brendan Cannon tallied two goals in 40 seconds to complete his hat-trick. The Hoyas regained the lead when Dave Paolisso ran the length of the field off a Nittany Lion extra-man opportunity and bounced a shot past Courteau.

Whitaker completed his hat-trick on a goal from Cutler to tie the game at 8-8 however Cannon scored his fourth goal of the game for the Hoyas with six seconds remaining in the third quarter to bring the score to 9-8.

Fourteen seconds into the fourth quarter Derek Mills scored an extra-man goal for the Hoyas to increase their lead to 10-8. Penn State responded scoring two consecutive goals from Boyle in a 22 second span to tie the game at 10-10. The Hoyas won the ensuing face-off and countered with a goal from Trevor Casey seven seconds later to give Georgetown an 11-10 lead. Whitaker took over in the fifth minute of play scoring two goals to give the Nittany Lions a 12-11 lead. Georgetown had a final possession in the Nittany Lion zone and scored with .08 seconds remaining in the quarter to tie the game at 12-12 and send the game into overtime.

Senior captain Will Cutler fired a shot with 3:24 on the clock in the overtime period and scored to claim a 13-12 victory over Georgetown. The win is the first over the Hoyas in six years and the first since Penn State joined the ECAC.

"It was a great game between two evenly matched teams," said Nittany Lion Coach Glenn Thiel. "We were able to cut their attack by changing our defensive schemes. Everyone played well and Chris Courteau made some really big saves when we needed them.

"When we were 2-5, the players knew what it would take to get there (NCAA Tournament). But, we became more aggressive and it's been an amazing journey the last seven games."

Penn State has won its last seven contests since falling at UMass on April 2. The Nittany Lions will find out if they received an NCAA Tournament berth when the field is announced tonight between 9:30 and 10:00 p.m. on ESPNews (Ch. 402 in Centre Region). Penn State has one previous NCAA appearance, coming in 2003.