For the Penn State men's lacrosse team, it wasn't about playing on the road in what amounted to a must-win game. It wasn't about breaking down the Mount St. Mary's defensive and offensive schemes. It wasn't about finally living up to expectations that have slowly dwindled away. It was just about finally playing well.

In perhaps its most important week to date, the Nittany Lions (4-5, 0-2 ECAC) took care of the first leg of a three-game stretch in seven days, beating Mount St. Mary's 16-7 on Saturday. More importantly, they finally took care of their own business.

"We realized that we have the talent to get the job done and play from the whistle," attack Charlie Perry said.

Snapping its two-game losing streak, Penn State's victory against the Mount marks just the fourth time this season a game was decided by more than two goals.

Penn State dominated the Mount in every statistic, including a 45-24 edge in the groundball department and 21 successful clears of 26. Penn State forced 29 turnovers.

"The defense shut Mount St. Mary's down and the offense controlled the ball," goalkeeper Josh LaGrow said.

Trailing 3-1 after the first quarter, the Lions rallied back as attack Nate Whitaker scored two of his three goals on the afternoon in the first two minutes of the second quarter. Outscoring Mount St. Mary's 7-1 in the second quarter put Penn State ahead 8-4 at the half.

The Lions shutout the Mount 4-0 in the third quarter and allowed just one goal in the fourth quarter. Penn State sealed the victory with four more goals in the final quarter.

"Yesterday showed that we have all those different aspects to offer and finally we just put it together," Perry said.

But perhaps more crucial than any stat was the rise of intensity.

"We didn't slack off," Perry said. "We played from the beginning whistle to the end."