The Penn State men's lacrosse team withstood a frigid, windy day in Lehigh Saturday, playing two scrimmages in preparation for their season opener at Holuba Hall next Sunday against Notre Dame.

The Nittany Lions won their first match against Lehigh 8-7, with mostly their first stringers in the game. Lehigh had the ball and a 7-5 lead with 6:50 left to go in the game when the Nittany Lions called a timeout.

Senior defenseman Mike Herscha came through with a takeaway, and the Lions scored the next three goals, the last coming from senior midfielder Sean Huss to come away with a victory.

"There were some tough conditions," Penn State men's lacrosse coach Glenn Thiel said. "We didn't get to answer too many questions."

Sophomore attacker Luke Oglesby came through with four goals and two assists on the day, while senior attacker Eric Wood added two goals and two assists of his own. Senior midfielder Michael Kern also scored a goal.

Thiel used the Lions' second game against Drexel to give his second team some time. They lost by just one to Drexel's first squad 5-4. Freshmen Mason Goodhand, Dan Geiger, Edmund Perry, and senior Tim Emmick all came through with goals for the Nittany Lions.

Though the Lions were happy to get a win, they were hoping to be a lot more dominant in their opening scrimmages.

"We found out we're not good enough to dominate teams right now," Thiel said. "I think we have the ability to play with anybody, but I thought we would be able to jump all over teams. Now we know that teams aren't going to knuckle under to us."

The Lions' coaches were pleased with the work of goalies Matt Vallone, Chris Garrity and Ian Kupferberg.

"Our goalie play was very good," assistant coach Lars Tiffany said. "Vallone, Garrity, and Ian all stole goals. They were stopping guys on one-on-one opportunities and made some big saves. I was really excited to see that."

Tiffany was less enthusiastic about the defense.

"We were not successful in coming together as a unit playing great defense," he said. "I'm still watching film to really decide if this was a positive week or not, but I know we're still not all the way there. We have to become completely cohesive as a unit.

"I was actually more pleased with the way the second team defense came together in the Drexel game. They seemed to rely on each other well, and really came together well."

The Lions were without sophomore starting defenseman Matt Zappia, who has a knee injury.

Thiel was also leery about the play of the midfielders.

"Our middies have to play better," he said. "We didn't get enough offense out of them. Huss got the game winner, but he needs to step up more, and we have to get (senior Randy) Kleinman to do a little more. That stuff just has to come around."

The Lions know they'll have a lot to do to get ready for their first regular season game Sunday at 1 p.m. at Holuba Hall.

"Things are going to be totally different Sunday," Thiel said. "The conditions will be a lot different, the intensity will be a lot higher. We have a lot of things we're going to have to do better to beat Notre Dame."