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It's pretty easy to tell lacrosse was meant as a spring sport. The players wear shorts. So when the Penn men's lacrosse team traveled to Villanova yesterday, it must have seemed like they were taking on two opponents -- the Wildcats and Old Man Winter. But if the frigid temperature and snow flurries bothered the Quakers, it didn't bother them enough to show up in the final score. Penn continued its impressive start in the early going this season by beating crosstown-rival Villanova 14-8, pushing its record to 2-1 on the year. "Villanova waits 364 days to play us," senior co-captain Steve Marks said. "We knew it was a big game for us. In the first 10 minutes, we had to get up early." The Quakers stuck to their game plan in the first half, using good offensive movement and good shooting to grab an early lead. Junior attacker E.J. Youngling scored Penn's first goal, on his way to four in the game, and freshman attacker Ben Conrad scored the second. Before long, the Quakers held a commanding 7-1 edge over the Wildcats. "We ran our offense to perfection," Youngling said. "We were moving the ball well and getting a lot of movement on the crease, which we practiced all week." "We came out with a lot of intensity," Quaker assistant coach John Burgess said. "We knew what we had to do in the beginning and we shot well in the beginning." But like the weather, the Quakers went cold. The intensity that had characterized Penn's play early on suddenly became elusive. Villanova scraped its way back into the game. At the half, Penn led just 7-5, and the Wildcats closed the gap to one, 8-7, in the third quarter. "We kind of lost their intensity," said Penn coach G.W. Mix. "It's awfully tough when you're up 7-1 and the weather is like that, and you just want to get on the bus. "Mentally they got on the bus sooner than they should have. But fortunately we were able to get our intensity back." "I think we fell asleep and got a little content," Burgess said. "To Villanova's credit, they never gave up." The Wildcats' seven-goal scoring spurt proved to be exactly what Penn needed to shake off the cold spell that followed its hot start. "We thought we were just going to roll right through them," Youngling said. "Coach called us over to the sideline and said, 'You guys have got to step it up and bury them.' " The Quakers did just that, scoring seven straight goals at the end of the third quarter and continuing through the beginning of the fourth. Sophomore attacker Andy Crofton increased his team-leading scoring total to 14 with four goals. Ben Conrad handed out four assists to go with his goal. "Our 'O' got a little complacent, and our 'D' got a little complacent," Marks said. "We were up 7-5 at half. We came out and said, 'That's it. We're winning by two goals. It's got to be more.' The offense started putting it away real nicely and our rope line contained their middies. Their middies were really quick." The Wildcats scored once more late in the fourth quarter, but it was meaningless. With a six-goal lead and the game under control, the Quakers were finally able to escape the cold and get back on the bus.

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