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#3 Yale upsets #1 Penn State

(Courtesy yalebulldogs.com) Posted: 2/22/2020 3:22:00 PM

University Park, Pa.  -  Two road games, two big victories for the No. 3 Yale Men's Lacrosse Team. Today, the Bulldogs got scoring from nine different players, another strong day from faceoff man TD Ierlan and eight crucial saves from Brody Wilson in a 12-10 win over No. 1 Penn State before a packed house at Panzer Stadium.

Yale, which opened last week with a win at Villanova, never trailed against the 3-1 Nittany Lions. The visitors enjoyed leads of 6-1, 7-3 and 10-7, though Penn State closed the gap on each of those and had numerous opportunities to even the score.

The two teams combined for 65 goals in a pair of games last spring, but didn't do much scoring early in this one. In fact, there was just a pair of tallies over the first 14 minutes, looking very different than 2019. A combined 48 turnovers had a lot to do with the low goal total today, and the Yale defense deserves credit for Penn State coughing up the ball 25 times.

Spreading the wealth on offense for a second straight week, the Bulldogs used goals from six different players to grab a 6-1 lead. Yale, which broke open a 1-1 game, started fast with a Jackson Morrill tally 28 seconds in, his 53rd straight game with a point. The captain scooted in from the left side and threaded a shot inside the near post. Morrill and company got the offense going with help on the X from Ierlan (16 of 26 today), who won his first eight faceoffs.

The Elis, who had a 42-29 edge in ground balls, also scored from their ride in the first half. Junior defenseman Chris Fake took a pass from a midfield turnover and ground ball by a teammate and raced in from the right side before sending a high bouncer past the goalie at 9:14 of the second for his first career goal and a 3-1 lead.

Wilson, who has both wins this season in net, made consecutive stops with under six minutes left in the game to help preserve the win. He also stopped the Big Ten's career scoring leader, Grant Ament, one-on-one in the third quarter.

Matt Brandau, Christian Cropp and Matt Gaudet finished with two goals while the Elis attempted 42 shots.

Yale Head Coach Andy Shay talked during the week about the two rounds Yale and Penn State went through in 2019. "This is round three, so these are two teams that are familiar with each other and have a lot of respect for each other. Hopefully it's going to be an exciting game." He got what he was hoping for and so did Bulldog Nation.

Yale's long road series continues next Saturday with a 1 p.m. game at UMass, followed by a visit to Souther California to meet Michigan in the Pacific Coast Shootout on Saturday, March 7.

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