The Lions were one step behind. The Irish fought hard for ground balls and tightened defense in close.
"We played pretty good defense. But situationally, we didn't play [well]," Notre Dame coach Kevin Corrigan said.
The Fighting Irish took full advantage of Penn State penalties, scoring four man-up goals against the Lions. Notre Dame beat the Lions 17-7 a year ago. In that game, the Irish scored six man-up goals.
"That hurt us, because that's just possessions you don't have. It's a big difference in the game, and that's why they beat us by 10 last year," Thiel said.
Both coaches agree that the game of lacrosse is streaky. Teams go on runs quickly, and the Lions have already witnessed this early in their 2005 campaign. Last week, they rallied from two three-goal deficits to upset Ohio State. Corrigan felt his goaltender Stewart Crosland was the difference yesterday.
"It's a huge game with momentum swings. He took away a couple chances for them to get the momentum with some great saves. I was really pleased with how he played," Corrigan said.
A bright spot for the Lions was the play of junior attackman Nate Whitaker. He leads the team in scoring and recorded his second hat trick of the season against the Irish. Whitaker felt that his team didn't play to its full potential yesterday, and as a result, it wasn't able to make the big plays necessary to win.
"It wasn't what they did; it was what we did. Our six-on-six offense fell apart," Whitaker said.
Penn State senior goalkeeper Josh Lagrow was pulled after the third quarter for freshman Chris Courteau. Lagrow had allowed 11 goals. When a team isn't scoring much, the spotlight is then turned to the goalkeeper.
"We had great looks at the goal. Their goalie played very well," Thiel said.
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