In a close knit affair at home in Panzer Stadium, the Penn State Nittany Lions’ men’s lacrosse team eked out a 10-6 win over a feisty Army Black Knights to advance to the NCAA tournament quarterfinals. It was a game that was dominated by the Blue and White that was not quite reflected by the scoreline, due to Patriot League Goaltender of the Year Sean Byrne’s heroic performance in the cage for the Army boys.
The win means that the Nittany Lions will be reaching the quarterfinals in two consecutive seasons for the first time in program history. This is also only their fifth win against the Black Knights, but their fourth consecutive. The stars of the day were sophomore sensation Hunter Aquino and Andrew Beard, the elite redshirt freshman with 3 goals apiece. Another notable moment for the Nittany Lions came when junior Brendan Leary scored his first goal of the season for the Nittany Lions on a breakaway goal to seemingly ice the game.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the Penn State victory was the amount of shots they generated against one of the nation’s best goalies. They outshot the Black Knights by 55-29, an astounding margin that unfortunately was not capitalized upon by the Blue and White as much as they thought. Colby Baldwin also dominated in the faceoff dot, winning 16 of them. Overall, Sean Byrne’s performance in net seemed to be an aberration, and if it weren’t for his 20 saves, Army would not have kept the game very close.
As for freshman goalie Preston Hawkins for Penn State, he wasn’t truly tested in his first career start in the NCAA tournament, but when called upon, he stood tall, recording 12 important saves to keep the Black Knights at bay.
Now, the Nittany Lions will await the winner of the game between the first-seeded Princeton Tigers and the Marist Red Foxes in the quarterfinals. The Nittany Lions beat Princeton on the road earlier this year 13-7, but have not faced Marist this season. Faceoff for that matchup is yet to be determined, but will take place in Delaware Stadium in Newark.
This article originally appeared on Nittany Lions Wire: Penn State lacrosse beats Army to reach NCAA quarterfinals
