With a three-goal fourth quarter lead, Towson State's John Blatchley worked one-on-one around the goal, spun and flipped the ball across the goal mouth to Glenn Smith who stuffed in a shot.

Less than four minutes later, Tony Millon sprinted from midfield, dodging Penn State defensemen and beating goalie J.J. Pearl to give Towson State an insurmountable 10-5 lead. Penn State eventually lost the game 10-8.

Although Penn State stayed close to seventh-ranked Towson State -- they held a potent offense to 10 goals and shut down Towson's leading scorer -- the difference in the game was Millon, Blatchley and midfielder Rob Shek.

Using their speed and quickness, the trio scored or assisted on nine of Towson's 10 goals against Penn State's larger defensemen Paul Gilhool, Paul McKelvey and Mark Dardaris.

"This year the whole game has changed," Millon said. "It's more of an isolation-oriented offense. It's quicker and it's an adjustment we made."

Shek and Millon utilized their open field speed to score three goals each. Blatchely played behind the goal, matched with one defender in Penn State's man-to-man offense. After using his quickness to gain a step advantage, Blatchely used a spin move and attacked the goal or dumped the ball into the middle.

"They were dodging and dumping. We made two mistakes on (Blatchley) -- we made two reach in checks and he tucked and went to the goal and scored twice," Coach Glenn Thiel said. "Those three guys hurt us, the rest of the guys we handled pretty well."

The pressure was on Penn State's defense throughout the game. The offense did not control the ball or shoot well. As a result, the defense was under constant pressure. Its fatigue allowed Towson to score five of the seven goals in the third quarter.

Blatchley's quickness helped him open and close the third quarter's scoring with identical moves. Both times he spun around McKelvey and threw in a goal.

"In the third quarter we played mostly defense and we were getting tired playing the man behind (the net)," Dardaris said. "That's why (Blatchley) beat us like three times."

"The main person we were concentrating on was Glenn Smith and we held him down to one goal and no assists so as the defense is concerned, we played real well," Gilhool said.

'They're all good lacrosse players and they're all good athletes and if you make a mistake, they all seem to capitalize on it," assistant coach Art Berry said.