M. Lax notches Ivy win No. 1 over Big Green

The Penn men's lacrosse team got into the Ivy League win column with a 15-7 score over Dartmouth in Hanover. In the middle of nowhere, the peace and quiet of a spring Saturday in Hanover, N.H., was interrupted by the Penn men's lacrosse team. The Quakers did not waste any time by scoring the first seven goals of the game en route to a resounding 15-7 win over Dartmouth (3-3, 0-1 Ivy League). "We were excited to play and were getting to loose balls from the start," Penn coach Marc Van Arsdale said. "We were moving hard, and we played the best team defense we've played all year." Dartmouth can consider itself lucky that the outburst was not more brutal. "I think the seven goals were a conservative number," Penn midfielder Joe Mauro said. "On every possession, we came down and took quality shots early in the game." Penn (3-5, 1-2) bombarded the Big Green early and often. Quakers attackman Peter Janney opened up the scoring five minutes into the contest. "Dartmouth's defense was playing an aggressive denial of any outlets," Van Arsdale said. "They didn't leave themselves much room to defend against a dodger, and Peter [Janney] handled the ball well, took his man up hard left-handed, rolled back and shot the ball right-handed against the cage." The opening goal was one of four for the Quakers in a 3:15 span. Penn attackman Todd Minerly scored during the span and later added another goal with just two seconds before the end of the first period. For Minerly, the goals were part of a five-point afternoon for last week's Ivy League Rookie of the Week. Midfielders Bart Hacking and Jeff Zuckerman added goals in the first 2:02 of the second quarter, giving Penn a 7-0 lead. Dartmouth tried its best to recover. The Big Green netted the last three goals of the first half in a span of just over three minutes, even though both teams went up and down the field with scoring opportunities. "Even during Dartmouth's run, we had a couple of goals taken off the board -- one was called in the crease, one was a disputed call," Van Arsdale said. "We didn't slow down during the latter part of the half." With Penn's lead cut almost in half, the choice was simple -- panic or stick to the game plan. The Quakers chose the latter. "We just talked about going into the third quarter and playing with the same enthusiasm and intensity that we had in the first period," Mauro said. The Big Green, however, continued its momentum from the first half. Dartmouth netted the first goal 4:41 into the third quarter, closing the Quakers lead to 7-4 less. Any fears of a comeback were soon put to rest when the Quakers went on yet another second-half goal-scoring spree. Penn rolled off the next four goals to put the game out of reach, starting with a goal by attackman/midfielder Michael Kehoe with 8:53 left in the third period. Kehoe and Janney led Penn in goals with three apiece. Overall, Penn outshot Dartmouth by a 34-31 margin. The early lead placed pressure on Dartmouth to fire away. John Silkey and Gregg Edell led the Big Green with two goals and two assists, respectively. One area where Dartmouth succeeded Saturday was faceoffs, holding a 16-9 edge over the Quakers. However, Penn controlled the ground game and control of the ball. "We did a pretty good job winning the 50-50 ground balls, and we got ourselves a couple of goals because we were able to come up with a tough ground ball, move the ball quickly and capitalize," Van Arsdale said. In addition, Penn had its best day of the year on extra-man advantages. The Quakers went 3-for-4, with one of the goals coming on a two-man advantage. "The most consistent aspect of our play this year has been the extra man offense," Van Arsdale said. "We've been over 50 percent in almost all our games this year, which is more than the average 35 percent." Penn now lies two games away from the .500 mark with five games remaining. The Quakers, however, are seeking to take each game one by one. "We talked last week about letting this be the start of a new season for us," Van Arsdale. "We just now want to get on to the next game and not worry too much about an overall or league record."