No luck for the Irish: M. Lax upsets Notre Dame in opener

The young but determined Penn men's lacrosse team came from behind to beat No. 12 Notre Dame 10-7 in the Quakers' first game of the season at Franklin Field on Saturday afternoon. Penn was slow at the start, spotting the Fighting Irish a 2-0 lead, but co-captain Pete Janney led the Quakers back, scoring twice in the last 1:09 of the first quarter. From there, Penn never looked back, scoring seven of the next nine goals -- including another two by Janney. "We just let Pete do his thing, and he just carried us all the way through," Penn junior Todd Minerley said. "He's our leader out there, and he set the tone for us and everybody just followed." While Penn's attack was impressive, an inexperienced defense and goalie were also strong from start to finish. Sophomore goalie John Carroll -- starting in his first game ever -- had 18 saves, including eight in the first quarter when the Irish could have put the game out of reach. "Carroll bailed us out early in the game when they were getting a lot of opportunities," Penn coach Marc Van Arsdale said. Penn's defensive corps was also dominant. Sophomore Scott Marimow had the unenviable task of guarding David Ulrich, Notre Dame's best player. While Ulrich still managed a hat trick, Marimow's staunch defense prevented the Notre Dame junior from doing more damage. "Scott Marimow was our X-factor, containing their best player," Minerley said. "He kept him under control and didn't let him get feeds." At 2-0, Penn looked like it was on the verge of collapse, but the team did not panic. Janney took the game into his own hands, tying the score as the first quarter expired. "We were a little nervous early," Van Arsdale said. "We wanted to be in the game for 60 minutes, but at the end of the first quarter I told the team that they had already given back 15. We knew we had to play harder." And play harder they did. Janney netted the first goal of the second quarter with just over 11 minutes to go. About two minutes later, midfielder Billy Reidy scored for the Quakers to make it 4-2. Penn sophomore Scott Solow added one as he took the ball and flung it right past the Irish goalie to increase the Quakers' lead to three. With the score 5-3, Minerley tallied the prettiest goal of the game. With 6:30 left in the half, Minerley took the ball from behind the goal, swung around to the front, switched hands and flicked the ball past Irish goalie Kirk Howell as he fell to the Franklin Field turf. The Red and Blue ended the half 7-4, outscoring Notre Dame 5-2 in the second quarter. Ulrich made the game close in the third quarter, scoring twice in the last 40 seconds of play. The Quakers, however, would not be denied this victory. Penn junior Kevin Cadin scored from the top of the crease on a pass from Alex Kopicki, and five minutes later, Minerley added his second score of the day. When the final whistle sounded, the Quakers had knocked off the No. 12 team in the country thanks to strong play on all sides of the ball. "I think our inexperience was overcome by some energy and enthusiasm," Van Arsdale said. "Our experienced guys are really giving us some good leadership. There's not a lot of them, but guys like Janney and Reidy are really stepping up and getting everybody focused in the right direction."

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