Ohio State
Penn State
No. 16 Buckeyes Down Penn State 10-8 in Inaugural B1G Game – Ohio State Buckeyes
3/29/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
March 29, 2015
Box Score | Photo Gallery | Video highlights
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – In the first Big Ten Conference game in program history, the No. 16-ranked Ohio State men’s lacrosse team posted a 10-8 win at Penn State Sunday afternoon at Penn State Lacrosse Field. The Buckeyes, who are now 8-3 overall, led 5-1 after the first quarter and 7-2 at halftime. Each team scored twice in the third quarter for a 9-4 game. The Nittany Lions (3-6, 0-1 B1G) scored four goals in the fourth, but the Buckeyes held off the late PSU charge for the B1G win.
“It’s incredible to be playing Big Ten lacrosse,” Nick Myers, Ohio State head coach, said. “The conference office has done a great job supporting the six teams in the league. These games are all going to feel like playoff games. Today certainly felt that way with two teams going at it for a full 60 minutes and we expect the same next week at home against Johns Hopkins.”
The Buckeyes and JHU Blue Jays will meet at 6 p.m. Sunday (April 5) in Ohio Stadium.
In the victory, Buckeye senior Jesse King had a hat trick and added an assist for four points, with his second goal the 100th of his Ohio State career. He now has 101 goals for the Scarlet and Gray, tying for eighth in program history. It was his sixth four-point game of the season and he leads Ohio State with 24 goals, 15 assists and 39 points this year.
Junior Carter Brown also recorded four points vs. Penn State with two goals and two assists and is second on the team with 18 goals, 13 assists and 31 points this year. Senior Turner Evans had three points on two goals and an assist while classmate David Planning had a two-point day with a goal and an assist. Freshman Colin Chell had six groundballs and graduate student Christopher May won 10 faceoffs and picked up seven groundballs.
“It was a hard fought game. We knew it would be,” Myers said. “They made a run at the end, but we’re certainly very excited to get our first win in the Big Ten Conference.”
Penn State scored the first goal of the game at 13:19 but Ohio State responded just 16 seconds later on a goal by King, starting a five-goal run by the Buckeyes for a 5-1 lead after the first quarter. Brown set up sophomore John Kelly at 11:08 to put Ohio State ahead 2-1 and a shot by Brown trickled through at 9:35 for a 3-1 lead. Just 15 seconds later, Comeault passed to King and he converted for his 100th career goal. Brown set up Planning at 7:34 to extend the Buckeye lead to 5-1. Ohio State had six shots in the quarter, with Penn State attempting seven. Buckeye redshirt sophomore goalie Tom Carey had three saves in the stanza.
Ohio State outshot Penn State 11-3 and outscored the Nittany Lions 2-1 in the second quarter to take a 7-2 lead into halftime. The Nittany Lions’ Mike Sutton opened the scoring in the second quarter with a goal at 13:44, making the Buckeye lead 6-2. King set up Brown for a goal at 6:45 and at 1:24, sophomore JT Blubaugh drove to the cage and scored for a 7-2 Buckeye advantage. Penn State’s goalie had the only three saves of the quarter.
Penn State scored at 10:11 of the third quarter, followed by back-to-back goals from the Buckeyes for a 9-3 Ohio State lead. King took a pass from Evans, turned and scored at 7:43 and Evans scored off a bounce shot, assisted by Planning, at 4:55. Less than a minute later (3:58), Penn State’s Sutton tallied, making the score 9-4 in favor of the Buckeyes. Ohio State outshot Penn State, 10-5, in the quarter.
Evans came around the cage and scored on a low shot at 13:56 of the fourth quarter for a 10-5 Buckeye lead. Starting at 6:44, Penn State scored four times in a 4:07 span to make it a two-goal game (10-8). Nick Aponte opened the stretch, followed by goals from Brian Prestreau at 5:57, Sutton at 4:47 and Matt Florence at 2:37. Ohio State was able to keep the Nittany Lions from drawing closer, including a save from Carey with less than two minutes remaining. Penn State took an offsides penalty with 1:05 left and the Buckeyes were able to hold the ball until less than 10 seconds remained. Shots were 12-5 in favor of Penn State in the stanza.
For the game, Ohio State outshot Penn State, 32-27. Carey made six saves for Ohio State in all 60 minutes in the cage. He has a 7.51 goals-against average and .554 save percentage this season. Penn State goalie Connor Darcey made eight saves.
Ohio State had the edge in groundballs, 23-20, while Penn State was ahead in faceoffs, 12-10. May won 10 faceoffs on the day, including 7-of-11 in the first half, and is now 121-of-186 (.651) this season. He has picked up a team-high 87 groundballs. Blubaugh had two caused turnovers to lead Ohio State.
Neither team was able to score with the man advantage, as Ohio State was 0-for-4 and Penn State was 0-for-2. The Buckeyes have stopped 14-of-15 opponent chances this year.
The game vs. Penn State also opened competition for the Creator’s Trophy, an annual traveling trophy among the first three Big Ten member schools (Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan) to sponsor men’s lacrosse that was established in 2012. The trophy is awarded when a team is 2-0 against the other schools; on years all teams are 1-1, the trophy is not awarded. The Buckeyes’ second Creators’ Trophy game is April 12 at Michigan.
