Irish use six different goal scorers to down the Nittany Lions.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The third-ranked Notre Dame men’s lacrosse team improved to 2-0 on the season with a 6-2 triumph of Penn State on Sunday afternoon at Bigler Field. The Fighting Irish used six different goal scorers to claim their ninth straight victory over the Nittany Lions.

The two goals allowed by the Fighting Irish defense were the fewest since a 12-2 win over St. John’s during the 2009 season. Notre Dame sophomore goalie John Kemp made eight saves in goal, while his counterpart Austin Kaut had 15 stops for Penn State (1-1).

Notre Dame led 3-2 after three quarters of play and the Irish out scored Penn State 3-0 in the final period to secure the victory. Junior midfielder Max Pfeifer netted a man-up goal at the 11:15 mark of the fourth quarter togive the Irish a 4-2 edge. That was Pfeifer’s second goal of the season.

Freshman attackman Westy Hopkins scored less than a minute later to give Notre Dame its first three-goal advantage (5-2) of the contest. Hopkins has three goals this season. Junior midfielder Eric Keppeler deposited the game’s final tally, on an assist from Sean Rogers, with 3:50 remaining. It was Keppeler’s first goal of the season.

Notre Dame grabbed a 1-0 lead just over two minutes into the contest on junior attackman Nicholas Beattie’s first goal of the season. Penn State answered back at the 6:06 mark of the first quarter on a Matt Mackrides man-up tally. Senior midfielder Zach Brenneman put the Fighting Irish up 2-1 with nine seconds left in the opening quarter. Brenneman has a team-high four goals this season.

Fighting Irish sophomore attackman Ryan Foley registered the game’s only goal of the second quarter as he deposited his first score of the season with 13:29 left in the opening half.

The Nittany Lions scored the only third-quarter goal as Tom Lacrosse made it a one-goal affair (3-2) with just over seven elapsed in the stanza.

Notre Dame out shot Penn State 42-19 and the Irish forced 16 turnovers. Fighting Irish senior defenseman Kevin Ridgway forced a game-high three turnovers. Senior long-stick midfielder Andrew Irving and junior midfielder Devon Dobson both had a team-high three ground balls for the Irish.

The Nittany Lions held a slim 7-5 edge in the faceoff circle. Irish freshman Liam O’Connor was 4-for-8 in faceoffs and senior Jake Marmul was 1-for-4.

The two scores were the fewest-ever for Penn State in the 18 all-time meetings against Notre Dame. The Irish lead the series versus the Nittany Lions, 14-4.

The Fighting Irish will open the home portion of their 2011 slate next Sunday versus No. 19 Drexel. Gametime is slated for 1:00 p.m. (ET).

February 27, 2011 – Bigler Field – University Park, Pa.
#3 Notre Dame (2-0) – 2 1 0 3 – 6
Penn State (1-1) – 1 0 1 0 – 2

Notre Dame Scoring (goals-assists):
Nicholas Beattie 1-0, Zach Brenneman 1-0, Ryan Foley 1-0, Max Pfeifer 1-0, Westy Hopkins 1-0, Eric Keppeler 1-0, Sean Rogers 0-1; Goaltender: John Kemp (W, 60:00, 8 saves, 2 GA)

Penn State Scoring (goals-assists):
Matt Mackrides 1-0, Tom Lacrosse 1-0, Colton Vosburgh 0-1; Goaltender: Austin Kaut (L, 60:00, 15 saves, 6 GA)

DURHAM, N.C. – Duke starting attack unit of Ned Crotty, Zach Howell and Max Quinzani combined for 10 goals and eight assists as the eighth-ranked Blue Devils defeated Penn State, 20-11, in men’s lacrosse action on Saturday afternoon in front of 1,691 fans at Koskinen Stadium.

Duke improves to 4-3 on the year while Penn State falls to 0-6.

“This was a good win for us,” said Duke head coach John Danowski.  “I thought we got a little bit better today and that was the plan.  You can’t worry about any opponent other than your next one, and we came out and executed pretty well.  We obviously got contributions from a lot of different players and that is by design.  Now we have a short turnaround with Dartmouth on Tuesday night, so we need to put this one behind us and get ready for another test.”

Howell led the way with five markers and two assists while Quinzani added four goals and one helper.  Crotty, the nation’s leader in assists, had one goal and five assists as Duke scored a season-high 20 goals.

Penn State’s Chris Hogan and Matthew Mackrides sandwiched goals around a Howell tally to give the visitors a 2-1 lead less than five minutes into the contest.  The Blue Devils then used a 5-0 run to claim a 6-2 advantage when Crotty scored an unassisted goal just 12 seconds into the second period.  The two teams then traded three goals apiece before Quinzani scored twice in the final 1:34 of the half to send the teams to intermission with Duke ahead, 11-5.

Duke’s Robert Rotanz found the back of the net twice to start the third period, and Justin Turri’s goal at the 7:32 mark gave the Blue Devils a 14-5 cushion.  Penn State responded with a 4-2 spurt and closed the margin to 16-9 early in the fourth quarter.  Duke then outscored the Nittany Lions by a 4-2 count over the final 11:11 to account for the final margin.

Mackrides led Penn State with four goals while Nick Dolick chipped in two goals and one assist.  Starting goalkeeper Dave Baker was credited with six saves while allowing 16 goals in three quarters.

For Duke, Parker McKee tallied a career-high three goals while Rotanz, Steve Schoeffel and Mike Catalino had two goals each.  In net, Dan Wigrizer had seven saves while allowing nine goals in 45 minutes of action.

The Blue Devils host Dartmouth on Tuesday at 7 p.m. while Penn State plays St. John’s next Saturday at home at 1 p.m.