Penn State men's lacrosse coach Glen Thiel was finding out what kind of team he had along with the rest of the spectators at Holuba Hall on Saturday in his team's season opener against No.14 Ohio State.

Thiel knew he had a boatload of injuries to manage, headlined by the loss of one of his top defenders, Matt Mulqueen. He also knew that goaltending would be an issue as well.

But on Saturday, he found out his team had some fight in it, too. The No. 21 Nittany Lions (1-0) upset the Buckeyes at home, coming back from two three-goal deficits to win, 9-7.

After the Buckeyes jumped out to a 3-0 first-quarter lead, the Lions rallied with three consecutive goals to tie it just before the start of the second quarter.

The Lions were scoreless in the second quarter; the Buckeyes again scored three straight goals to take a 6-3 lead into halftime.

Thiel challenged his team to play with more aggression and speed the game up in the second half.

"Everything was like slow motion early. We just wanted them to play with a little more abandon and draw something," Thiel said. "We just started flying at them and that helped us move the ball and find open people."

The second half was a much different story. The Lions shutout out the Buckeyes in the third quarter, 3-0.

Junior attacker Nate Whitaker scored his first goal of the game on an assist from teammate Greg Gureniain, which tied the game 6-6. Senior goalkeeper Josh Lagrow stopped 13 shots in the period and collected two ground balls. Whitaker added two more goals in the fourth period. His final goal proved to be the eventual game-winner with 2:58 left.

Thiel didn't like seeing his team repeatedly trying to dig out of a hole.

"We were behind the whole way though. We don't want to do that too often," he said.