ON THE SIDELINES: Second-period explosion lifts Yale over M. Lax

With the exception of one stretch in the first half, the Penn men's lacrosse team outscored Yale Saturday 12-8. But in the last 12 minutes, 45 seconds of the second period, Yale outscored the Quakers 8-1. That stretch put the Elis in front and allowed them to withstand a fourth-period comeback by Penn. The Quakers entered the second stanza up 2-1, and sophomore attacker Jon Cusson increased the Penn lead with an early goal. By the time Cusson scored the Quakers' next goal, with just under five minutes left in the period, Yale was leading 7-4. In between, the Elis exploded, scoring six straight goals to surge ahead. And after Cusson's score, Yale responded with two more goals to close out the first half with a 9-4 lead. The flurry was keyed by the Elis' junior attacker, Tom Zaccagnino, who registered the first two goals of the scoring spree. The goals were also the beginning of Zaccagnino's personal outburst -- he finished the game with six goals, most of them from close range. "Their defense was very good," Yale coach Mike Waldvogel said of Penn. "We tried to penetrate inside instead of around it, and we had some trouble in the beginning, but once we started moving the ball we did some good things. Zaccagnino was outstanding at finishing inside." After Zaccagnino's first two tallies, the Elis soon added two more scores to take a two-goal lead. The Quakers were not helped by their inability to win faceoffs against Yale midfielder Brian Wilhelm. The Elis repeatedly regained possession after scoring during the period, putting pressure on the Penn defense. "Wilhelm on the faceoff was key," Waldvogel said. "You just scored a goal and all of a sudden you get the ball back again. Now the pressure's on them again, and their defense is saying, 'What's going on here?' as the ball is back in their face again." The relentless Yale offense was also frustrating for the Penn attack, which spent much of the period simply waiting and hoping for a chance. "Especially from an attacker's point of view, that's always disappointing," Quakers freshman John Ward said, "because we just go up to the half line and sit and watch what's going on down in their offensive end." When the Penn offense actually got an opportunity, it wasn't for long. Twice in the period the Quakers managed only one shot before Yale regained possession. Both times the Elis moved the ball downfield and scored, pushing their lead to 7-3. And when Cusson scored his second goal with 4:49 left in the period, it took Zaccagnino only 24 seconds to answer with another goal of his own. "It could have gone either way," Waldvogel said. "They had some great shots inside which they missed in the second period. Shot-wise it was pretty even in the second period. We finished inside -- Zaccagnino's a great finisher -- and that was the difference." Indeed, Zaccagnino finished the Yale outburst and the first half by picking up a loose ball in front of the Penn goal and scoring his fifth goal of the period, putting the Quakers in a 9-4 halftime hole from which they ultimately could not escape. "I don't care who you're playing, you can't get yourself in a hole like that every game," Ward said. "We've got to get a better start next game and not get ourselves into a hole again."