Men's lacrosse: Klossner's big stop brings Mountain Hawks down

Penn goalie Greg Klossner had a save percentage of 40, but it was 100 percent when it mattered.

With under three minutes to go, Lehigh's Michael Zurfluh came streaking all alone into the crease with a chance to tie the game. But the Penn 'keeper stuffed him, and the Quakers were able to run out the clock soon after for the 13-12 win.

He had already let in 12 goals - twice as many as he let in against Villanova on four less shots - but Klossner guessed correctly on the big one.

"I just tried to match sticks and stay big in the goal, and I was lucky enough it hit me," he said.

Penn coach Brian Voelker didn't get as solid a game from Klossner, but he'll take it.

"He bailed us out against Villanova, he had a great game. Like I said, this isn't one he's going to put on his highlight reel, but he did what it took to win the game and he made some big saves at the end."

It shouldn't have come down to that, though. When Alex Salihi scored to make it 12-9 early in the fourth quarter, Penn started to slow it down on offense, and another goal two minutes later extended the lead to four.

From there it looked like a cakewalk for the Red and Blue, but the Mountain Hawks made the best of the few late possessions to net three. David Gaunt put in two while Stephen Marino - who had a slick behind-the-back goal earlier - had a goal and an assist in the five-minute span.

"We kept it interesting, that's for sure," Voelker said. "We really bailed ourselves out on the offensive end, played very well offensively. Some guys stepped up and made some plays. We didn't do a very good job defensively but we played hard and did what it took to win the game."

The attack, which had some questions to answer coming into the season, looked like the team's strength. Captain David Cornbrooks netted four goals from the midfield position, while Craig Andrzejewski scored four to go along with five helpers. The two of them combined for 62 percent shooting, and had only three attempts go off-target.

The opener against Villanova was a little sloppy - and yesterday's game also started that way - but the Quakers soon settled into a groove against the Mountain Hawks.

"Guys [were] just concentrating a little bit more," said Cornbrooks of Penn's shooting. "I think once we got up people started settling down a little bit."

And while the team was happy to get the win, there are still some issues to be resolved before the Ivy League season kicks off.

On the defensive end, Lehigh used sharp passing to get wide open looks.

"We definitely had some breakdowns, a couple times guys were pressing too much on backdoor plays, but we can't give up easy goals like that," Voelker said. "We have to make teams make five, six eight passes to score goals on us, not just one."

As a result, the Quakers allowed more goals than they did all of last year to non-tournament teams.

But in the end, as Cornbrooks said, only one stat counts.

"We came in with one goal and that was to get a win, and now we're 2-0, and that's all that matters."

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