Five unanswered goals in the first period drove Penn to a 13-8 win over Army in the first round of the 2019 NCAA Division I Men’s Lacrosse Championship on Saturday at Franklin Field. With the victory—Penn’s 12th straight—the men’s lacrosse team advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals for the first time in 31 years.
Senior midfielder Alex Roesner scored the first goal of the game for the No. 4-seeded Quakers around three minutes into the contest. Senior midfielder Tyler Dunn scored a goal a few moments later, assisted by freshman midfielder Sam Handley, to put Penn up 2-0. Around 30 seconds later, sophomore midfielder Mitch Bartolo scored an unassisted goal to give the Quakers a 3-0 lead. Junior attacker Adam Goldner scored a goal with 6:12 left in the period, and Handley scored with nine seconds left to put the Quakers ahead 5-0 after the first quarter.
Two minutes into the second quarter, Army scored its first goal of the game, followed by a second goal two minutes later to cut Penn’s lead to 5-2.
Goldner scored his second goal of the game with 8:51 remaining in the period to extend the Quakers’ lead to 6-2. Senior attacker Simon Mathias scored with 5:33 on the clock to give Penn a 7-2 advantage.
The Black Knights fought valiantly and scored three goals in the final three-and-a-half minutes of the second period to make it a 7-5 game at half.
Mathias scored his second goal of the game around three minutes in the third quarter and the Red & Blue took an 8-5 lead. Goldner scored his third goal of the game with 5:09 remaining in the third period to put Penn up 9-5. Army scored a goal to make it 9-6. Mathias scored his third goal with around a minute left in the quarter to give the Red & Blue a 10-6 lead.
Army got within two in the fourth period, scoring goals at the 9:16 and 8:26 marks to make it a 10-8 game.
Roesner scored a goal with around six minutes remaining in the game to give Penn an 11-8 advantage. Mathias added a goal with two minutes remaining, and Roesner scored his third with 1:41 left to make the final score 13-8.
Mathias led the Quakers with five points. He had four goals and one assist, and extended his point-scoring streak to 58 games. Roesner and Goldner scored three goals each. Goldner has scored in 24 straight games, the fifth-longest streak in the country.
Mike Murphy, the James H. Greene, Jr. Head Coach of Lacrosse, earned his 75th win, making him Penn’s all-time winningest coach.
On Sunday, May 19, at 2:30 p.m. at the University of Connecticut’s Rentschler Field, the Quakers will take on No. 5-seeded Yale for the third time this season. Penn won the first two matchups, beating the Bulldogs 13-12 in triple-overtime on March 30 and 12-11 in the Ivy League Championship game on May 5.
