The 2006 season wasn't supposed to start this way for the Penn State men's lacrosse team.

The No. 14 Nittany Lions (0-1) traveled to South Bend, Ind., to compete against No. 12 Notre Dame in a game they expected to win.

But those expectations were not reached when the Lions lost an 8-4 contest to the Fighting Irish yesterday in the Loftus Sports Center.

Tied 3-3 going into the fourth quarter, the Irish poured on five goals, overpowering the Lions.

Penn State assistant coach Guy Van Arsdale was impressed with his team until the fourth quarter.

"We got some fresh numbers out there early on," Van Arsdale said. "It was very low scoring for a while."

Van Arsdale coached at Notre Dame for one season and has since gone on to assist head coach Glenn Thiel at Penn State.

The game could have been seen as two separate sections: the first three-quarters and the last.

The first quarter was a scoreless tie as both goalies shut down their opponents. Van Arsdale credited the strong play of freshman goalie Drew Adams in keeping his squad in the game.

"There were two great goaltenders out there today," Van Arsdale said. "They both only gave up three goals apiece up until the fourth quarter."

Senior captain Nate Whitaker netted three goals in the loss while fellow captain senior Greg Gurenlian scored the other.

Whitaker and Gurenlian were both named preseason All-Americans and are tri-captains with Keith Benjamin.

But the seniors couldn't carry the load for long as the fourth quarter approached.

The Lions were overpowered in the fourth quarter, while having trouble finding the net themselves.

In the end, it was the flurry of goals by the Irish, which in the end made the difference.

"We had trouble getting the ball into the net today," Van Arsdale said. "Any time you lose you're disappointed."

The disappointment for the Lions though will be short lived as they look forward to the rest of the season.

Van Arsdale said that the first game is always exciting and in a loss there are negatives as well as positives.

"We really saw many good things today," Van Arsdale said. "We're not really worried. We'll be good in the future."

The play of the freshmen excited the Lions and seeing them succeed early on gives the team hope for the games ahead.

Freshman attacker Rob Forster came off the bench with an assist and the goaltending of Adams were some of the positives in the game.

The end result may not have been what the team and coaching staff expected but Van Arsdale said the season is still young.

"If this was a one-game season we would be really disappointed," Van Arsdale said. "We still have a whole fresh season ahead of us."