Late run seals key win for Quakers

A night of firsts occurred for the Penn men's lacrosse team last night at Franklin Field.

The No. 18 Quakers (7-3, 2-3 Ivy League) clinched their first winning season for this year's senior class, and the first since 1989 for the program by defeating Lehigh, 7-6 last night.

They did so in no small part due to senior co-captain Scott Marimow's first career goal, which tied the score at six late in the fourth quarter.

"As soon as he crossed midfield I turned to Coach Amplo and said 'he's going to shoot,'" Penn head coach Matt Hogan said. "Then I said 'he's going to score it. All of the seniors stepped up and put us over the top.'"

While the end-to-end rush was special for Marimow, his teammates did not let him forget his lack of scoring touch.

"He hit me in the leg earlier with a shot," said Penn senior Peter Scott, who also scored two fourth period goals. "I just wanted this one to go in and not hit me."

What would become a special night for Marimow and the Quakers did not start out so promising.

Lehigh freshman sensation Andrew Lucas scored one early goal and assisted on senior Tony Lowe's to spot Lehigh an early 3-0 lead. Lucas ended the game with four goals giving him 38 on the season.

"This game [to clinch a winning record] meant everything to us," Marimow said. "I think we were tentative because of the pressure and how much pressure we all felt to win."

Lehigh (5-6) also ran a unique offensive set against the Quakers vaunted defense, which entered play ranked eighth in nation in scoring defense.

"Their style of offense was one we hadn't seen this year. We were not used to it," Marimow said. "[Goaltender] Ryan [Kelly] helped us out and we played well in the second half."

Senior midfielder Sonny Sarker notched his sixth goal of the season to pull the Quakers within two at 3-1.

However, the Engineers struck right back on a man-up with Lucas nabbing his second goal of the game. The Engineers were 2 for 2 in the man-up in the first half. This was the game's marquee matchup as the Quakers entered the game with the best penalty kill in the nation, and the Engineers scored at a remarkable 60 percent clip.

Senior midfielder Mike Iannacone kept the Quakers close, matching Lucas' two second period goals with two of his own, the second of which came with 40 seconds remaining in the half, to put the halftime score at 5-3.

The third period was marked by excellent goaltending for the Engineers as Tom Ellies turned aside a number of quality scoring chances. Neither team was able to tally, and the score remained at 5-3.

However, it was in the fourth quarter that the seniors took over, with a little help from a freshman. Just 15 seconds into the quarter Scott took a feed from junior midfielder Alex Kopicki and notched his seventh goal of the campaign.

After Lucas tallied his fourth and final goal of the game with 11:47 remaining, Scott got his eighth just twelve seconds later to make the score 6-5.

Then after a brilliant pass to break a press by goalie Ryan Kelly, Marimow scored to tie with 9:25 left.

Then, Greg Voight's fifth goal of the season came. With 3:25 remaining, the freshman netted the game winner and clinched the Quakers' winning season.

"One of our goals was to get a winning record, we accomplished that," Hogan said. "This group of 43 guys separated from the last 12 that have been here, and that's because of the senior leadership."

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