The No. 17 men’s lacrosse team (4-3, 1-0 CAA) has continued its undefeated road record after traveling to Binghamton on Tuesday afternoon, defeating the Bearcats 11-7 off a hat trick performance from senior midfielder Nick Dolik.
TJ Sanders, who entered the day as the seventh-best scorer in the country, added one goal on the night to improve on his team-leading 19 goals to add to his already impressive freshman campaign.
The offense rattled off 31 shots, scored 11 goals and got seven different attackers into the scoring mix. A nine-goal first half propelled the Lions for the rest of the afternoon.
“I’m pretty disappointed with our performance in the first half,” Binghamton coach Scott Nelson told BUBearcats.com after the game. “To give up nine goals is uncharacteristic of our defense. I thought we played about as good of a third quarter as you can hope for, but in the end they made the plays that made the difference.”
Despite the strong offensive performance, the defense let up a season-high 41 shots. However, junior goalkeeper Austin Kaut recorded 16 saves for the win.
The game started off competitively with the first quarter ending with Penn State leading by just one goal. But Dolik scored all three of his goals in the second quarter, and the Lions opened the gap to hold a seven-goal lead at halftime.
The Bearcats fought back after halftime, as they outscored Penn State 4-0, to cut the lead to two with 1:02 left in the third period. But after a Penn State timeout, Binghamton would never score again.
Junior midfielder Tom LaCrosse notched his eighth goal of the season to give the Lions a 10-7 lead, followed by a goal by junior attacker Shane Sturgis to close out the game.
For the second straight game, Penn State was not able to convert on extra-man opportunities going 0-for-4 in the past two games.
Again, penalties plagued the Lions as three of the Bearcats’ goals came from the extra man advantage. Binghamton was 3-for-5 on the day on man-up opportunities.
Penn State will return home on Saturday for a conference matchup with St. Joseph’s. The Lions are looking for their first win on home turf this season.
