Martin's goal gives M. Lax an Ivy victory

(Penn - 11, Brown - 9)

Sometimes it's the little things that make a big difference.

On a sweltering day at Franklin Field yesterday the Penn men's lacrosse team, ranked 18th in the nation, got the key groundballs and faceoffs in a dramatic 11-9 victory over No. 19 Brown (4-6, 2-1).

"Everyday in practice we get on the guys about the little things, and they sometimes don't understand why," Penn coach Matt Hogan said. "But in games like this it is the little things that win."

And in the Quakers' case, practice paid off. Penn (8-3, 3-3) won six of the last seven faceoffs, cleared the zone 18 times in 18 attempts and had more groundballs in every quarter, winning 28-23 overall.

"Ethan [Haire] was amazing on faceoffs," Penn senior attacker Scott Solow said. "That might have been the biggest part of the game."

However, without some big goals down the stretch, those efforts would have come in a losing cause.

The Quakers rallied from an 8-6 deficit in the fourth quarter in large part due to Solow's efforts. He finished off a hat trick with 10:05 remaining to pull the Quakers within one at 8-7 and drew a penalty on the Bears during the play. The goal was Solow's team-leading 17th.

Just 18 seconds later, Bob Graustein evened the game at eight on a man-up goal.

"Bob Graustein had not been playing well at all lately," Hogan said. "But he really helped the team today."

The Bears struck back, however, as Michael Hughes scored with 4:31 remaining in the game to the delight of the large Brown contingent at Franklin Field.

But for the second-straight game, Penn freshman attack Greg Voigt scored a huge goal.

Voigt, who scored the game-winner against Lehigh Wednesday night, took a pinpoint feed from senior midfielder Mike Iannacone behind the net and beat Brown goalkeeper Mike Levin low to even the score at nine with only 2:44 left to play.

"You can't plan on scoring those," Voigt said. "I just work hard and try and help the team out."

"He is a coach's son and he plays like it," Hogan said. "He knows how to find the open spaces."

Following yet another faceoff win by Haire, Penn regained possession and set up Jake Martin's game winner with only 1:14 to go in regulation. Martin bounced his shot past Levin to notch the unassisted goal, his second on the day.

"Jake Martin was possessed," Hogan said. "That's better than I think he's ever played lacrosse before."

Quakers sophomore Patrick Connelly fielded a heavily contested groundball off the ensuing faceoff and junior midfielder Alex Kopicki scored a clinching goal with 54 seconds to go.

Penn got a good deal of contribution from two unexpected sources -- Martin and Voigt -- in the second half.

But in order to keep the game close, Penn needed another strong effort from its two leaders, Iannacone and Solow, early. The two seniors -- the Red and Blue's leading scorers -- scored four of the five Quakers' goals in the first half in staking a 5-4 halftime lead.

The advantage was pushed to 6-4 on Martin's first goal, but during a ten-minute period -- spanning the third and fourth quarters -- Brown went on a 4-0 run during which the Quakers were dominated at both ends of the field.

"Offensively we got out of sync and rushed shots," Hogan said. "Defensively I made some mistakes coaching and confused some of the guys. I take responsibility for that."

This Penn team is now the first to win eight games in a season since the Quakers tallied nine victories in 1989.

"This win was not only a great win for the team," Solow said. "But a big one for the program."

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.