Penn men's lacrosse gets one more shot to pick up flashy victory

Over the river and through the woods, to Radnor the Quakers go.

With Penn Relays flooding Franklin Field, No. 8 Penn men’s lacrosse will go to Radnor, Pa., to play St. John’s at the annual Katie Samson Lacrosse Festival on Friday.

Penn (8-3) is coming off of a five-game win streak, most recently beating Towson on Tuesday night, 15-9. That is the longest win streak the Red and Blue have had since 2006.

“The game [Tuesday] night was a step forward for us offensively,” coach Mike Murphy said. “I would love to continue to build on that as well as the face off success we had and to try to be good on defense as well.

“We have statistical goals we try to reach in different categories and we hit them in most of the categories and were close on defense.”

However, that is not to say that St. John’s (7-6) will not pose a threat to the Quakers.

“They are a very talented team with a very good attack so I think it will be a good game and a good way to end our regular season,” junior attack Isaac Bock said.

“St. John’s attack is as good an attack as we’ve seen so we will have to do a good job containing them,” Murphy added.

In order to stop the Red Storm’s attack, the Quakers will need to play the defense they have been playing in their last five games, not the display they showed against Cornell on March 22 when they gave up 17 goals.

The Quakers have had strong defensive showings as well as key offensive performances lately, however they have been unable to do both in the same game.

“I think it’s just consistency more than anything else,” Bock said. “We’ve been good at every individual thing in different games so we just need to put it all together.”

“We need to be a little bit more diligent and a little more intense in the riding game and we will be ready to go,” Murphy added.

This game marks the last regular season game for Penn and its first ever meeting with the Red Storm. The Quakers will close out an impressive schedule that has included matchups with six teams in the top 20, and wins over No. 3 Denver and No. 13 Yale to boot.

Though the Quakers are “hosting,” the game will take place at Radnor High School at the Katie Samson tournament that raises money for spinal cord research, run by the father of Samson, a Penn lacrosse alum.

This will be the Quakers’ last game before the Ivy League tournament, which will be held at either Harvard or Cornell.

“We’re just trying to win this game and take it like we’ve taken every game this year,” Bock said. “One game at a time, focus on winning this one, then we will deal with whatever comes after.”

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