Win is not enough for M. Lax

Penn coach Marc Van Arsdale did not see his squad's best in the 13-8 victory over Lafayette. After witnessing the Penn men's lacrosse team's 13-8 win over Lafayette, one coach left Franklin Field Tuesday night pleased with his team's performance while the other left questioning his team's focus. Strangely enough, however, it was victorious Quakers coach Marc Van Arsdale who strolled off the turf unimpressed and unenthusiastic about his team's play. "We didn't have enough fight in us tonight, and it was all-around a pretty sorry performance other than a couple minutes," Van Arsdale said. The numerous fans who left at halftime had certainly been impressed enough after watching Penn rattle off nine straight goals in the final 18 minutes of the half to take an insurmountable 10-3 advantage. Those who did stick around through the cold night were treated to a lazy and sloppy third quarter from the Quakers who seemed content to hang on to their lead rather than extending it. Only after the Leopards had run off four straight did Penn right itself and score three more times to seal its win. "We're not a bad lacrosse team, and we wanted to demonstrate that tonight and I think we did," Leopards' coach Bill Lawson said. "We had that lapse in the second period when it got away from us, and those things happen. We got back into it and I thought we did a nice job. I'm very happy." The game started much the way the second half did, with Lafayette more emotional on the sidelines and more in control of the action on the field. Turnovers and a holding penalty on Quaker Brian Dobson allowed Lafayette to jump out to a surprising 3-1 lead 12 minutes into the action. Jon Cusson almost single handedly held the Quakers close by scoring the first two goals and adding an assist on the third goal. But on a night when Cusson picked up another five points to add to his team-leading total even his play was considered of mixed quality by Van Arsdale. "Every single time we picked the ball up we'd throw it away or else we would miss it before we picked it up," Van Arsdale said. "It was incredibly sloppy to start with. Lafayette was flying all over the field putting pressure on us and I don't know what our problem was. We rectified a little bit for the second quarter, but in the second half we reverted." "Jon played hard tonight, but even in the first couple minutes of the game we had two four-on-three fast breaks and he just dropped the ball at the point where we have opportunities to score, and he's too good a player for that to happen." Penn grabbed a lead it would never relinquish by scoring three goals in the final two minutes and 36 seconds of the first quarter to take a 4-3 advantage. It was all Quakers in the second quarter as they piled on six more goals to quiet the once-enthusiastic Leopards sideline. The Quakers defense also cleaned up its first-quarter turnover troubles and forced Lafayette turnovers which led directly to quick transition goals. "The big turnaround for us was that we started playing more from the waist down," Van Arsdale said. "And I also thought the defensive group we put in in the second quarter shored things up." The second quarter spurt gave Penn a lead that was never in doubt, but the team was more concerned with its first and third quarter sluggishness than its 15 minutes of excellence. "Sometimes we don't come out ready to play, and I think that happened tonight," Cusson said. "We were lucky that we could get it together and bounce back. We played hard and we played well in spurts, but I don't think the level of concentration was there for the whole game." Freshman Peter Janney, who led the home team with four goals, continues to be a big boost to the Quakers offense. John Ward picked up three scores, including one with 10:09 left in the game which stopped Lafayette's string of four unanswered and ended the Leopards' hope for a miraculous comeback.

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