Surprising Dartmouth takes care of M. Lax at Franklin

Heading into yesterday's game against Dartmouth, the Penn men's lacrosse team was seeking a much-needed Ivy League win against a team they had beaten each of the last six years.

But the Quakers found out the hard way that this year's Dartmouth team was different than any Big Green team they had seen before.

With their offense pressured by a tenacious Dartmouth defense all afternoon, the Quakers (4-5, 1-3 Ivy) fell to Dartmouth, 7-5, yesterday afternoon at Franklin Field.

"I think our guys had it in the back of their head that it's the old Dartmouth team," Penn coach Brian Voelker said. "They're much better and they played really hard today."

The loss extended Penn's losing streak to three games and was the team's second in a row at home. It was Dartmouth's first win over the Quakers since a 21-14 decision at Dartmouth in 1996.

The Big Green (7-1, 1-0) secured their first winning season in eight years with the victory and matched their best start since 1995.

Coming off a solid performance against No. 2 Princeton on Tuesday, the Quakers were outhustled by a faster, more aggressive Dartmouth team. The Big Green controlled the tempo of the game and fought for every loose ball, recording 31 ground balls to the Quakers' 20.

"We got the flu going through our team right now, and we looked like it today," Voelker said.

While the Quakers had ample opportunities to score, they were often denied by Dartmouth goalie Andrew Goldstein, who recorded 15 saves and held the Red and Blue to one goal in the first half.

"From my end, it looked like their defense was pressuring our guys pretty well," Penn senior goalie Mark Gannon said. "In a low scoring game like this you've got to give credit to both defenses."

Gannon also had a stellar performance, matching his career- high of 13 saves for the second game in a row. The senior came up big at the end of the first half and again in the fourth quarter with three point blank saves to keep the Quakers within striking distance.

"I told the guys, if it weren't for Mark, we wouldn't have had a chance at the end of the game," Voelker said.

"But every time we got a bit of momentum, Dartmouth had an answer for us," he added.

The Quakers opened the scoring when freshman Luke Dixson scored his third goal of the season off a pass from junior Will Phillips 2:39 into the game.

But Dartmouth would take over from there, scoring three unanswered -- including a goal and assist by senior Scott Roslyn -- while holding Penn scoreless to take a 3-1 lead into halftime.

After Dartmouth sophomore Ben Grinnell extended the lead to 4-1 at the start of the third quarter, the Quakers answered back with Phillips, once again, assisting Dixson for his career-high second goal of the game.

Senior Jake Martin's unassisted goal with 8:12 to play in the third brought the deficit to 4-3.

But Grinnell killed the Quakers' comeback, launching a goal from deep beyond the crease less than a minute later, giving Dartmouth a 5-3 lead.

At the start of the fourth quarter, Grinnell received a cutting pass from Roslyn and completed his hat trick -- which would prove to be the game winner.

Phillips' shorthanded goal with 2:59 to play cut the lead back down to two, 7-5, but the Quakers were unable to score again.

The Quakers were led in scoring by Phillips, who extended his team-leading points streak to 14 games with a goal and two assists.

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