Brown keeps Penn Ivy winless

Despite storming back from an early three-goal deficit and taking its first lead late in the third quarter, Penn men’s lacrosse was topped by No. 18 Brown, 12-9, Saturday.

With the loss, Penn (4-7, 0-4 Ivy) remains winless in the Ivy League with just two weeks left in the season. Brown (5-4), meanwhile, improves to 2-1 in the Ancient Eight and stays alive in the hunt for the Ivy championship.

The Bears wasted little time jumping all over the Quakers on Saturday, as midfielder David Hawley rang one off the right post on the opening possession.

Though they were unable to cash in, the Bears had the Quakers on their heels, as they were found relentlessly chasing the ball for the first 15 minutes.

“They had maybe six or seven possessions in the first quarter to our three,” coach Mike Murphy said. “And their possessions were longer than ours, so we played a lot of defense.”

The slow start was enough to dig the Quakers into a hole, as the highly-efficient Brown offense netted goals from Thomas Muldoon, Nicholas Laster and Andrew Feinberg.

“They’re a little bit more deliberate with their pace, and conservative with their decisions,” Murphy said. “They score a pretty high number of goals on a relatively low number of possessions overall.”

Aside from an Al Kohart goal on a man-up situation midway through the first quarter, the Penn offense struggled mightily in the first stanza.

But the second quarter saw a turnaround, as the Quakers stormed back after falling behind 4-1.

John Conneely ignited the Penn charge with his goal at the 8:27 mark of the second. Fellow sophomore Tim Schwalje followed with a goal on another man advantage four minutes later to bring Penn within one.

Following a Penn timeout, and with just 10 seconds left in the half, it was Conneely again beating his defender and surging to the goal before whipping a shot past Brown goalie Matt Chriss.

“The play was designed for Rob McMullen or Al Kohart,” Conneely said. “It just opened up. And coach always says if you’ve got an open shot, take it. So I took the shot.”

Murphy was pleased with the way his team responded.

“We won a couple faceoffs, and we got a man-up a couple times and it helped us get into our offense,” he said.

Brown came out quick again after halftime, as Parker Brown scored in transition just 13 seconds into the quarter.

But the Quakers kept the game close, as the teams’ traded scores until Hawley put the Bears ahead 9-8 on a quick shot through traffic on the left side.

But the dagger came with 7:45 to play, as Roger Ferguson led the Bears in transition, outrunning three Penn back-checkers before feeding Parker Brown, who finished the rush to give the Bears a two goal lead.

Murphy knows there’s just one thing standing between the Quakers and their first Ivy win.

“We’ve played a ton of teams in the top 5, top 15, top 20. We clearly are comparable to some of those teams physically and tactically. But we’re not consistent enough. We can’t pick our spots. And I think that’s what’s really hurt us most this year,” he said.

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