Villanova Earns First-Ever Victory at Penn State
from press release
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- In their first ever win
as a visiting team at Penn State, the Villanova men's lacrosse team
brought home an 11-7 victory in a twilight outing with Nittany
Lions. Senior co-captain Mark Scioscia led the Wildcats with a two
goal, two assist performance while Michael Vigilante, Jack Rice and
Mike Brennan each added two goals of their own in the win.
Assistant coach Simon Connor states, "Our upperclassmen won us the
game tonight. Scioscia, Brennan, Webber, and Arvan stepped up big
time on offense and Ficke, Higgins, and McCartney were great all
night at the defensive end. Brian Karalunas had one of the best
performances of his career. Penn State is a very good team so we're
really excited about this win, especially with it coming on the
road."
Penn State was first to get on the board with two quick goals two
minutes into the first quarter with scores from Matthew Mackrides
and Billy Gribbin, but Villanova freshman Jack Rice was the one to
begin the offensive scoring for the Wildcats at the 9:17 mark with
an assist from Scoiscia.
The second quarter marked a Wildcat dominated fifteen minutes with
Villanova scoring five unanswered goals from Matt Bell, Brennan,
Scioiscia, Vigilante and Rice going into the half. Awaiting the
second 30 minutes of play, the `Cats led the Nittany Lions, 6-3,
going into the locker room.
The third quarter marked a slight 2-1 goal advantage led by
Villanova, with VU's Brennan and Will Casertano adding scores for
the Wildcats and PSU's Mackrides adding another goal for the home
team. Going into the final fifteen minutes, Villanova held an 8-5
lead over PSU.
Vigilante and Webber added two unassisted goals in the fourth
period while Scioscia netted the final point of the game off an
assist from Nick Doherty. Villanova's three goals in the final
quarter was enough to hold on for their first victory on Penn
State's home turf, with the scoreboard reading 11-7 at the final
horn.
On the defensive end, senior Bryan McCartney led the team with six
ground balls while Brian Karalunas, Nolan Vihlen, T.J. O'Donnell,
Troy Higgins and Brennan all tallied two ground balls each.
Villanova led Penn State in total shots taken by a 37-32 margin
while both teams were even with no goal advantages on extra man
opportunities.
VU's Dan Gutierrez is credited with the victory and made seven
saves for the Wildcats while PSU's Dave Baker made 17 saves in the
defeat.
Villanova will be back in action this Saturday when they travel to
cross-town rival Penn for a contest at Franklin Field. Faceoff is
scheduled for 3 p.m. ET.
