Penn State's men's lacrosse coach Glenn Thiel has a simple philosophy when it comes to preseason games: See how each player looks before the regular season begins, but don't lose anybody to injury.

Even though Penn State dropped the final of two preseason games, a 7-2 loss on the road against No. 2-ranked Johns Hopkins Saturday, Thiel sounded upbeat.

Nobody got hurt, he said, adding that the team's starters played for a little more than a half before the reserves were put in.

The game stayed fairly close through the first half, with Johns Hopkins taking a slim 2-0 lead into the break.

However, there were a host of problems for Penn State's offense in the first half.

Johns Hopkins controlled the ball and the clock early on, Thiel said. It also got to more ground balls than the Nittany Lions and took 11 shots at goalie Drew Adams, while the Lions could muster only two shots in the first two quarters.

Thiel said that Hopkins' wings reacted better to ground balls than his team did.

"They just tended to come up with it," he said. "They probably did a better job on ground balls than we did."

Penn State also yielded all four first-half face-off opportunities to Hopkins, something that Thiel said was "crucial."

Down 3-0 in the third quarter, senior captain Pat Heim scored the Lions' first goal of the game, and his second of the preseason.

"He's the guy we're gonna lean on," Thiel said. "He can challenge any defense. We gotta get some people around him that produce also a little more than this weekend."

Though the Lions would score only one more goal in Saturday's loss -- an unassisted shot by sophomore Mike Toner in the fourth quarter -- the second half had a lot of upsides for the Lions' offense.

Penn State scooped up more ground balls than Johns Hopkins, won more face-offs and took almost twice as many shots as its opponent, albeit with mostly reserves.

Thiel said Johns Hopkins waited until the fourth quarter to play its reserves, however Penn State used its backups for most of the second half.

Toner said that his goal was a "confidence booster" for himself, adding that the team's morale seemed high despite the loss.

"Everyone was satisfied, everyone played hard," Toner said.

"Johns Hopkins is a great program. We just looked at them as another team. No matter who they are, we're not gonna go in there scared of our opponent."

Now that the Lions have finished their exhibition schedule with a 1-1 record, they will begin their regular season with a night game against Denver on Saturday in Holuba Hall.

Having seen the entire team play during the Lions' two exhibition games, and avoiding any additional injuries, Thiel sounded ready to take on Denver, predicting that it will be a close game.

"Let's just realize that we're gonna be in the fight with everybody," he said.