M. Lax is too much for Lafayette to handle

The Penn men's lacrosse team ran away in the second half for win unmber five, surpassing last season's win total. Like a great prizefighter, the Penn men's lacrosse teams knows just how to break down its opponents in the later rounds. The bigger, deeper Quakers (5-1) wore down visiting Lafayette last night en route to an 18-5 victory. "They just had more people than we did," Lafayette coach Bill Lawson said. "We were able to play with them in the first half. I was proud of the job our keeper and defense did but they just had too many good athletes." The facts of the Penn victory back up Lawson's claim. The more-talented Quakers were unable to pull away from the Leopards in the first half. Lafayette sophomore goalie Duncan Woodward had 14 saves and kept the Leopards close despite the fact that Penn outshot Lafayette 33-15. "We just ran into a hot keeper in the first half but we knew that we would have to start capitalizing on our chances soon," Penn coach Marc Van Arsdale said. The Red and Blue had a sizable, but not insurmountable, 8-3 lead heading into the locker room. Penn's first-half offense came mostly from the sticks of the Quakers' aces thus far this season. Junior Pete Janney, sophomore Todd Minerley and senior Jeff Zuckerman have been masterful with the short sticks in 1999 and the trio had a hand in all but one of Penn's eight first-half tallies. "Peter and Todd each shot the ball real well," Van Arsdale said. "They gave us goals when we needed it." Janney scored twice in the first half and finished the contest with four. He pushed his season goal mark to 18 and his season point total to 28, both of which are tops in the Ivy League. Minerley was not to be outdone. He had five points and trails only Janney in the season point total. Zuckerman had three points, all coming in a clutch first half. The third and fourth quarters saw Penn dominate play in all facets of the game. No longer was scoring concentrated at the top, as eight Quakers had goals and Penn outscored the smaller Leopards 10-2. "They were playing a zone, and the way to beat a zone is to keep the ball moving," said Penn junior attacker Chris Wolfe, who scored twice last night. "The play definitely opened up and a lot of different people had chances to score." For Wolfe, it was the second straight game in which he chimed in with at least one goal. He also added an assist to finish with three total points. Wolfe's success off the bench is a sign of Penn's ability to field a balanced attack. "Chris has had two good games in a row. Against a team like Lafayette, it's good to have players like him that can really push it on offense," Van Arsdale said. "It's a lot like basketball -- the way you beat a team that has a tightly-packed defense is to attack before they can set up." Wolfe was an integral component of a second-half scoring bonanza in which Peter Scott had two goals, Scott Solow and Sonny Sarker added one apiece and Kevin Cadin had the first of his career. While Penn's dizzying number of goals last night may be the game's top story, one should not lose sight of the job done by the Quakers defense. The men with the long sticks have held their opponents to a paltry seven goals in the past 120 minutes of game time. To put it another way, Quakers foes are sending the ball into the Penn net less than once every 17 minutes -- or less than once per period. "Compared to other seasons I am much more confident," Penn senior defenseman and co-captain Ziggy Majumdar said. "Every since I have been here, we've never had a defense that communicates so well. We don't have to play much man-to-man defense because we function so well as a unit." Lafayette was not hapless by any means and the Penn defense was challenged by its quick attackers. Highlighting these scampering scorers was sophomore Kevin Bromby, who had a hand in four of the five Leopards tallies. Every Penn keeper logged time last night. Ivy League Player of the Week Matt Schroeder played the first three quarters, saved 13 shots and shrunk his Ivy-leading goals-against average to 6.33. Freshman John Carroll gave up no goals and had two saves. Sophomore Bill Kane yielded one goal but looked comfortable with two quality stops. "I think we have some guys on offense that should be able to score against them but this is the best Penn team I have seen in a very long while," said Lawson, who has coached the Leopards for 28 seasons. At this point last season, the Quakers were a measly 2-4. Now, buoyed by their best start in well over a decade, they sit atop the Ivy League. Ranked 14th nationally, Penn hopes it can continue to wear down higher-profile opponents as the Ivy season gets into full swing. The Quakers' next matchup is this Saturday at Ivy rival Harvard.

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