The sunshine near the end of Penn's Friday victory was perfectly timed. Unfortunately for any believers in fate, the Quakers' win was just a result of good defense.
The Red and Blue played their best lacrosse in the second half, downing Dartmouth, 9-6, for their first Ivy win of the season and their first win of any kind since Feb. 21.
Penn (2-6, 1-3 Ivy) gave up just six goals for the first time since its second contest of the 2008 season (20 games ago).
They never trailed, but the game stayed tight until the fourth quarter, with both teams alternating goals the entire first half.
"Dartmouth's kind of a blue-collar, hard-working team and so are we," senior Alex Weber said. "I guess that's why [our games are] always battles."
An inability to penetrate kept the Quakers' set offense stagnant in the early going. But heads-up transition play on both ends made the difference.
After failing to convert a man-up opportunity in the first period, Penn surrendered the ball to Dartmouth's defense. Dawdling in the backfield, Big Green goalkeeper Ferguson Campbell airmailed a pass that was intercepted by Weber, who launched a shot into an undefended net to make it 2-1.
Later in the half, Quakers freshman John Conneely notched his first NCAA goal off a feed from sophomore Corey Winkoff.
Conneely finally broke through the Big Green defense, speeding through the middle for a shorthanded goal just outside the crease to put the Red and Blue on top, 5-4.
From then on, Penn's defense stole the show, holding off a Big Green offensive set for nearly a minute before intermission.
"It's like night and day from what it's been the last couple weeks on the defensive end," coach Brian Voelker said. "A couple of the goals we gave up were [Dartmouth] just heaving the ball."
The Quakers shut down the right players, holding Dartmouth's top four scorers to a combined three goals on the afternoon, including a garbage goal in the closing seconds.
First team All-Ivy and 2007 conference Rookie of the Year Ari Sussman managed just one score as well.
Penn forced 21 Dartmouth turnovers while winning 11 of 19 faceoffs and limiting the Big Green (2-7, 0-2) to just 29 shots.
"We had some costly turnovers in the first half," senior Craig Andrzejewski said. "Our offense wasn't taking care of the ball, our defense was kind of bailing us out. They kept us in the game."
Andrzejewski tallied two goals to lead a senior class that dominated on the offensive end. Garvey Heiderman added two scores and Weber and Drew Collins contributed one goal apiece.
"Our class has done well throughout our careers, but we've had some tough go's this season," Weber said. "It's nice to see a lot of people step up with widespread scoring."
And after such a long losing streak, it's also nice to see the defense finally play to its potential.
