It's becoming a very disturbing pattern. Not to mention hard on the fans. The Penn men's lacrosse team is making a habit out of overtime games and streaks without goals. This makes for exciting games, but isn't necessarily conducive to winning, as the Quakers found out last weekend against Harvard. In Saturday's 9-8 double-overtime win over Cornell, however, this pattern led to victory. And no doubt a few ulcers for spectators in the sunny stands of Franklin Field. The pattern goes something like this: After pulling ahead 5-1 early in the second quarter, Penn went the rest of the period without scoring. And the entire third. And most of the fourth, before a late scoring flurry tied the score at 8. The total time Penn went without a goal was 37 minutes, 52 seconds. "It seems we play hard at the beginning and then we play a bad third quarter and a team gets back up on us," junior midfielder Andrew Greenberg said. "We've always been able to reach down and pull it up in the fourth quarter and we pretty much know we can rely on that. Still, it's really frustrating to go the second and third quarter without scoring. We know the defense is bearing way too much of the burden." Where did this drought come from? Well, it was a combination of factors including good goalkeeping by Cornell's Matt Norfolk and an adjustment by the Big Red defense to shut down the Quakers' rushes from behind the net that were so successful early. It was Penn's inability to put the ball in the net despite a several chances that caused the most trouble, though. "It wasn't a matter of the offense not going right," sophomore Andy Crofton said. "We were getting the shots, but we've got to get it in the net. I think a lot of it has to do with a little bit of bad luck. We took some bad shots, their goalie was a pretty good goalie, and we hit a few pipes. We just have to put the ball in." But that was not the case earlier in the contest when Penn attackers made quick rushes from behind the net and beat the slow-to-adjust Big Red to build up the 5-1 lead. "When we got the ball behind the net, we went straight at them and beat them," senior attacker Alex Goodman said. "They weren't used to being beaten so quickly and cleanly that their slides weren't quick enough. But they adjusted and we didn't until late in the game." More damaging than the missed opportunities was the fact Cornell did a good job capitalizing on Penn's mistakes. "They're a good team," Penn coach G. W. Mix said. "They're going to capitalize on our mistakes, and they took advantage of every mistake we made. We're going to make mistakes because we're young. Fortunately, the experience that these young kids have gained the last two years is helping us get back in these games. At least we're putting ourselves in position to win." Which calls to mind the other half of this phenomena: Penn's uncanny ability to rise to the occasion. It's this prowess under pressure, combined with Penn's solid defense, that alleviates the worry these scoring droughts might cause on another team. "The first thing we said is 'We've been here before,' " Mix said. "We've been here too damn many times, but we've been here before. We've learned you can't get all three of them back with one shot. We have to get them back one at a time, and there's no doubt in any of our players minds that we could be down four or five goals and have a chance to win the game." And although the win is helpful for the Quakers in terms of the Ivy standings, it is both slightly ominous and very encouraging in the face of Wednesday's meeting at top-ranked Princeton. Ominous because Penn will have considerably less leeway with the Tigers. And encouraging because Penn's early and late play were sterling. "I think if you could have a good feeling going into the Princeton game, this would be it," Mix said. "When we go play Princeton Wednesday, we can't make any of these mistakes," senior defender Steve Marks said. "They'll eat us up."
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