Ohio State
9-1, 1-0Big Ten
Penn State
6-2, 0-1Big Ten
No. 9 Ohio State Dominant in 13-9 Win at No. 4 Penn State
3/23/2025 9:35:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse
COLUMBUS, Ohio – No. 9 Ohio State opened Big Ten play with an emphatic 13-9 victory at No. 4 Penn State on Sunday night under the lights in State College.
The win, which lifts the Buckeyes to 9-1 on the season, was the first win at Penn State since the inaugural Big Ten game on March 29, 2015.
The Short Story
The game started out frenetic as both teams felt the excitement of playing under the lights in a great atmosphere. Penn State raced out to a 4-1 lead and then the Buckeyes dominated the rest of the way.
Ohio State scored four consecutive goals in the second quarter to erase the deficit and then opened the third quarter with another four-goal run to take control of the game.
Five different Buckeyes netted a pair of goals on the night. Garrett Haas, Ben Mayer and Shane O’Leary all had two goals and an assist while Ryan Donnery scored twice on three shots. The Big Ten leading goal scorer Alex Marinier joined in with a pair of goals, his 30th and 31st on the season.
Sophomore Caleb Fyock had a tremendous game between the pipes. He tied his career-high with 17 saves and improved his record to 9-0 on the season.
Jack Oldman picked up a team-high 11 ground balls while winning 16-of-25 face offs.
How it Happened
- After a frantic opening few minutes with each team missing on a couple of opportunities, Penn State got the first goal as the Nittany Lions collected a rebound and scored at the 10:37 mark of the first quarter.
- After a second PSU goal, the Buckeyes got on the board as Ben Mayer took a nice pass from Gannon Matthews and found himself wide open and he buried the shot under the bar. That was his eighth goal of the season.
- Penn State took a 3-1 lead into the first quarter break and then scored less than a minute into the second quarter to push the lead to 4-1. But then the Buckeye onslaught started.
- Haas scored on a the man advantage off a wild play with 12:15 to play until halftime.
- Haas was then at the right place at the right time as he collected a loose ball in front of the open cage and easily put it home to pull the Buckeyes within one at 4-3.
- Mayer followed just over a minute later with his second goal of the night to pull the Buckeyes even at 4-4 at the 10:15 mark.
- Alex Marinier then got in on the action as he took a pass from Jack McKenna and beat the keeper low to put the Buckeyes in front 5-4.
- Penn State capped the first half scoring with a goal at the 2:57 mark to even the score again at 5-5.
- The Buckeyes came out on the front foot in the second half and scored four goals in the first six minutes to take a 9-5 lead.
- Shane O’Leary scored the first goal just 49 seconds into the third quarter as he knifed in front and netted his 12th goal of the season.
- Ryan Donnery and Jack McKenna then connected for back-to-back goals in just over a two-minute span. For Donnery, it was his 14th and 15th goals of the year while McKenna collected his 9th and 10th assists.
- The scoring-run continued as Marinier scored his second goal of the night on a rifle shot from the left side of the cage, giving the Buckeyes a 9-5 lead with just over nine minutes left in the third quarter.
- After Penn State got one back, McKenna decided to score a goal of his own. He sprinted around from the back of the cage and slipped a shot past the keeper for his sixth goal of the season.
- PSU scored the final goal of the third quarter and opened the fourth with a goal 33 seconds in and the Buckeye lead with down to 10-8.
- O’Leary settled things down with his second goal of the night, shoving the lead back to 11-8 with 9:29 to play.
- After another nice stop from Fyock, Ed Shean scored on the backside following a pass from Haas and the lead was back out to four at 12-8.
- That seemed like a big goal as it gave the Buckeyes breathing room.
- Gannon Matthews put the game away with an easy goal out of a timeout making the score 13-8 with less than two minutes to go.
Up Next
Ohio State returns home to continue Big Ten play next Saturday when it hosts Rutgers at 1 p.m. The Scarlet Knights are 5-5 on the year and opened conference play on Saturday with an 11-8 win at Johns Hopkins.
#GoBucks
