The last few years, the men's lacrosse team usually seems to bring out the best in Drexel.

"I'll call up other coaches and find out scouting reports and they'll tell me all this stuff about 'Oh, they're passive,' " Coach Glenn Thiel said. "And then they play us and they're a bunch of wildmen."

The squads will meet again at 2 tomorrow afternoon at Drexel. Both teams have some incentives to play so aggressively since many of the players live around Philadelphia and compete in the same summer leagues. Penn State's players will have many family members and friends in attendance. In addition, Drexel's coach, Randy Voight, played at Penn State.

"We have like ten members of the team from Delaware County and (it's) just like going home," midfielder Paul Kutufaris said. "We're right in our backyard and that will make it more fun."

While Penn State beat Drexel 13-6 last year and has won 18 of 20 career matchups, there have been some real close games the last few years. Two years ago, the Lions lost 14-13 after blowing a pair of five-goal leads.

Penn State is rebounding from a hard-fought 10-8 loss to No. 7 Towson State. They'll be looking to take control of the game from the beginning and keep Drexel from getting any momentum.

"What we want to do is jump on them and get after them right away so we get the lead on them," Thiel said. "They've always been the kind of team if you let them into the game, they're capable of doing some stuff."

"It's the games like Drexel that we have to win," attacker Ted Peddy said. "The Towson State's we can always fight out, but it's the Drexel's we have to win."

Penn State's well-balanced offense --it had seven goal scorers against Towson -- is led by Peddy with 20 goals. Behind Peddy are midfielders Greg Guarton with 10 goals and Jim Laverty with eight goals and eight assists. Attackers Chris Lehman and Joel Brous are next with seven and six goals, respectively.

Sophomores Jamie Morse and J.J. Pearl are competing for the starting position in goal. Tomorrow Morse will be in goal for the first time in two weeks.

Drexel (0-2) is led by John Colt on attack and 6'5" midfielder Derek Gibbons. The Dragons have most of their attackers back, but their problems have resulted from having a freshman in goal, Thiel said.

Drexel is expected to slow Penn State's fast style with a plodding offense, Peddy said. In practice, the defense emphasized increasing pressure to force turnovers.

"We know we're a better team than them," Kutufaris said. "(We will) try not to have a letdown the whole game and try to play consistent the whole game and just beat them doing the things we've been doing all year."