It's a good thing Pete Makover didn't have to know where the ball was.

The sophomore midfielder on the men's lacrosse team was supposed to take the shot that would give the team the lead against the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, but with players swarming all over him, he flicked the ball in the air before he was knocked down by two UMBC defenders.

Somehow, it landed in the stick of fellow middie Jim Laverty, and he knocked it in with just 1:12 left in the game. With that, the Lions held on to post an exciting 11-10 victory Saturday afternoon in Catonsville, Md.

"I was tied up and threw kind of a Hail Mary -- I saw someone in a blue jersey," Makover said. "It went to Bogie's (Laverty) stick and he struck it.

"I got up and and asked 'What happened? Did it go in?' My teammates said 'We'll tell you on the sideline.' My face was in the dirt, but when I got up people were going nuts so I had a pretty good idea we scored."

"It was a little bit of luck, but I was there to finish it," Laverty said. "That was the easy part."

In that final 1:12, Penn State went down again and scored an apparent goal, according to Coach Glenn Thiel, but it wasn't whistled as such. When UMBC got it back one last time, they only had 8-10 seconds to get off a shot, but what they threw at Lions' goalie Jamie Morse was only a mild dribbler.

No. 19 Penn State finally had a win over a quality opponent and in the process upped its record to 5-3. UMBC fell to 5-4.

The game started, however, as had all of Penn State's previous games against higher-rated teams. UMBC, fueled by its young lineup of mainly freshmen and sophomores, opened up a quick 4-1 lead. But that's when Laverty took over.

He scored six times on the day and with that increased his point total to second on the team with 20 points (Makover has 21). A realization Laverty made during the past week helped him regain the form that he had the previous two seasons when he tallied 40 and 42 points, respectively.

"I woke up and said, 'Wait a minute, I have only half a season left,' " he explained. "It was like a crossroads --I can either focus on my game or continue going through the motions. It was a mental adjustment. Now I'm back on the right track."

"Laverty played super," Thiel said. "Before he knew where to be, but he would miss the goal (on the shot)."

Laverty also credited his scoring prowess to the switch from a soft field (like astroturf or a muddy one) to a hard, dry pitch, like it was in Maryland. If the field is harder, then the ball bounces more which is an advantage for the attacker, Laverty said. It gives him an alternative type of shot to play.

"It's good for me, bad for the goalie," he said.

Makover added three goals (and three assists), with senior attacker Ted Peddy and junior midfielder Scott Bailer scoring once. Sophomore attacker Chris Lehman and senior midfielder Paul Kutufaris assisted on one goal apiece.

By halftime, Penn State had caught the home team, 7-7, making the second half a back-and-forth affair. Whenever the Lions would get a lead, UMBC would come right back, all of which set up the final minute's flurry.

"It was a close game that could have gone either way," Laverty said. "When we fell behind, no one said 'Oh God, we're getting blown out.' We basically kept playing."

"It was a wild one," Thiel added.

Notes: Penn State is now 6-3 in the series against UMBC and has won the last five contests; all of those victories came by a total of eight goals combined. . . The game was even in about as many categories as the close final score. The Lions outshot their opponents by one, 39-38, but recorded one less goalkeeping save, 16-15.