While St. John's is winless in conference, that doesn't mean that the Red Storm's feeble record has the No. 14 Penn State men's lacrosse team feeling too secure.

"They are a very scary team," Penn State men's lacrosse assistant coach Guy Van Arsdale said.

The Nittany Lions (5-3, 3-1 ECAC) are heading into their contest at 1 p.m. on Saturday at St. John's (4-6, 0-4) erring on the side of caution. Penn State is riding a three-game winning streak, but that won't mean much on gameday.

"They are chomping at the bit to get an ECAC win," Penn State men's lacrosse coach Glenn Thiel said. "Hopefully we realize that. Hopefully we understand that."

A win-loss record like the Red Storm's can be deceiving. Despite a 13-6 loss vs. No. 10 Massachusetts last weekend, they lost one-goal games to No. 20 Loyola and Rutgers and a two-goal defeat to No. 2 Georgetown.

The trend of younger players amply describes the Red Storm's lineup, with 27 freshmen or sophomores on the roster. But that can't be used as too much of a negative, because this late in the season St. John's inexperience has been neutralized to an extent.

"If we don't come to play, we'll be in trouble," Thiel said. "Hopefully we realize that."

Also, with the keys to any lacrosse game being goaltending and face-offs, St. John's strength is in both areas. Sophomore goalie Dave Saccente is No. 14 nationally in goals against with an average of 6.92 letdowns per game. Another sophomore, midfielder Devin Madden, is No. 8 in face-off percentage.

Luckily for the Lions, they are well-insured in those departments as well. Freshman goalie Drew Adams is coming off of an ECAC Defensive Player of the Week performance against Hobart, in which he saved 17 shots.

The forgotten man, at times, can be senior midfielder and face-off man Greg Gurenlian. He has been successful in face-offs 58.4 percent of the time, and every week the tri-captain sacrifices his body.

"The nature of that role is that you are going to get the snot beat out of you," Van Arsdale said. "Drew gets a lot of attention, but Greg has been every bit as important."

Face-offs will be especially important this week, because the Red Storm love to slow down the pace. If they get possession of the ball, Penn State can expect its opponent to try and make the game low scoring.

But with the Lions' more deliberate style as of late, St. John's might be the more aggressive of the two teams. Red Storm sophomore attacker Tom Michaelsen leads the team in points with 25, but Van Arsdale said that sophomore midfielder Justin O'Donnell might be the best athlete Penn State will see all season.

That should be enough to get the favorite riled up.