PISCATAWAY, NJ – The second-seeded Penn State men's lacrosse team outscored top-seeded Johns Hopkins 10-4 over the final 25 minutes of Saturday's Big Ten Championship game to break a 6-6 tie and fuel a 16-8 victory at SHI Stadium at Rutgers University. With the win, the Nittany Lions earn the Big Ten's automatic bid to the upcoming NCAA Tournament, while the Blue Jays await word on a possible at-large bid to the tournament.
The Blue Jays (9-5) forced the fifth tie of the game less than three minutes into the third quarter as
Matt Collison and
Hunter Chauvette found the back of the net early in the second half. Collison worked the wing and spun back to his right before finding the far post at the 13:25 mark, while Chauvette scored from a ridiculous angle along the goal line to pull the Blue Jays even at 6-6 just under a minute later.
As quickly as the Blue Jays had knotted the game, they found themselves down by three as the Nittany Lions scored on three straight possessions to push out to a 9-6 lead with six minutes remaining in the third. Luke Walstrum came from behind the goal and scored from in tight with 9:11 on the clock before Andrew Beard and Jack Iannantuono struck just 64 seconds later to give Penn State the first three-goal cushion of the day.
A video review would extend the lead to four nearly four minutes later as Chase Robertson picked the top corner and play continued for nearly a minute before a natural stoppage sent the officials to the monitor, where they ruled the goal was good. Hunter Aquino would cap a five-goal, quarter-ending run for the Nittany Lions when he blew home his second of the day.
Another strike from Chauvette would halt the run just 56 seconds into the fourth quarter, but the Nittany Lions would tack on five of the last six goals in the final 8:14 to account for the final score.
Penn State 9-5) had grabbed a 6-4 lead at the break as the Nittany Lions outscored the Blue Jays 3-0 over the final nine minutes of the second quarter to grab the two-goal lead. A Robertson goal at the 8:45 mark sprung the three-goal spurt for Penn State, which added a Kyle Lehman strike less than a minute later and then saw Liam Matthews get to the middle and beat the shot clock with 3:21 on the first half clock.
Penn State led 2-1 early, but it was the Blue Jays with a 3-2 lead after the opening 15 minutes as
Jameson Smith dodged hard from the wing to score with six minutes remaining in the period and
Chuck Rawson added a 12-yard laser with 1:48 on the clock to give Hopkins the one-goal lead after one.
Chauvette,
Jimmy Ayers and
Brooks English all earned a spot on the All-Tournament Team.
Johns Hopkins Notes of Interest
• Chauvette finished with four goals and totaled seven goals and two assists in the two games in the tournament.
• English (3a) and Ayers (1g, 1a) were the only other two Blue Jays with multi-point games.
•
Oran Gelinas went the distance in goal and finished with 11 saves.
• The Blue Jays were making their fifth appearance in the Big Ten Championship game.
Penn State Notes of Interest
• Aquino (2g, 2a), Lehman (3g) and Matthews (2g, 1a) led a balanced attack for the Nittany Lions.
• Colby Baldwin (11-of-15) and Reid Gills (8-of-13) combined to win 19-of-28 faceoffs with nine ground balls between them.
Up Next
The Blue Jays will gather on Sunday, May 3 at 9:30 pm to watch the selection show for the upcoming NCAA Tournament.
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