Four Penn State men's lacrosse defenders stood, huddled together, a few yards in front of their net.

One of them, sophomore goalie Drew Adams, had just allowed one of Notre Dame's gargantuan attackers, 6-foot-6, 260-pound Will Yeatman, to blast two goals past him in a span of less than one minute, giving Notre Dame a 3-2 lead early in the second quarter.

Adam's other three teammates knew that he might be upset after allowing consecutive goals, and that it was part of their job to keep him calm.

"I always kind of blame myself for whenever the other team scores," Adams said, adding that his fellow defenders try to make sure he stays "level-headed."

It wouldn't get any easier for Penn State's defense, as a low-scoring game slowly evolved into a shootout as the Fighting Irish earned an 11-8 win yesterday afternoon in Holuba Hall.

The Nittany Lions (0-2) were left with questions about their shooting, their face-offs and turnovers allowed. They also had a 0-2 start for the second season in a row.

Notre Dame (2-0) outscored Penn State 5-1 in the second quarter alone. The problem in that quarter, Penn State head coach Glenn Thiel said, was that the Lions committed too many turnovers, and didn't have the ball long enough to get their offense going.

In the third quarter, the Lions were able to take almost twice as many shots as the second quarter, but
still ended up scoring only once. Thiel credited Notre Dame's junior goalie, Joey Kemp, for keeping them on top.

"He's as good as any goalie in the country," Thiel said. "He was tough during that stretch. You gotta do more with your shots."

When the third quarter turned into the fourth, it looked as if there was no hope for a comeback with Notre Dame ahead, 10-4. However, the Lions' sideline burst to life when they scored four goals in less than four minutes to bring the score to 10-8.

"We were getting ground balls, and the shots we were taking were falling," senior captain Pat Heim said when asked about the team's late surge. "We got that one spark, and we just kind of fought."

The fourth quarter was the most productive part of the game for the Lions; they took the most shots, came up with the most ground balls and won the most face-offs. However, the late-game productivity wasn't enough to overcome all their earlier mistakes.

Adams said that the Lions could be proud of their comeback attempt.

"I don't think there's a player on our team that doesn't think that we could beat them if we put in four good quarters," Adams said. "But, coming out strong and going lax for two quarters and then having to dig our way out of a hole -- that was a little too big at the end."