Penn men’s lacrosse coach Mike Murphy does not purport to be a statistician.
Very much the opposite.
Murphy was conspicuously unaware of the one-goal, five-assist performance senior attack Corey Winkoff produced in the Quakers’ 9-8 overtime loss at No. 20 Villanova (5-1) Saturday.
“To be honest with you, I didn’t even know he had six points,” Murphy admitted. “To me … it doesn’t even matter that much.”
But Murphy emphasized how important Winkoff was for No. 9 Penn (3-2) in the defeat.
Despite losing, the Red and Blue came back from an early 3-0 deficit and late 8-5 disadvantage to even the score twice, ultimately sending the game to an extra period.
Winkoff was a big part of that effort — but not always in ways that can be measured statistically, Murphy argued.
“Whether he has one point or six points, he’s kind of our leader no matter what,” Murphy said.
In Murphy’s eyes, Winkoff’s contributions are great but partially immeasurable and intangible.
Still, despite Winkoff’s big game and great hustle, there’s a reason why the Quakers lost. And that’s an area in which Winkoff is not involved.
The Red and Blue won just seven of 20 faceoffs throughout the contest, including one in overtime.
And that translated to a lot of good shooting and passing opportunities for the Wildcats’ phenomenal attack pair of sophomore Jack Rice and junior Kevin Cunningham.
“The team that has the advantage in the faceoffs is going to have more offensive possessions,” Murphy said. “If both teams score 30 percent of the time they have the ball, the team that has the ball most wins.”
Rice and Cunningham made short work of the Penn defense, recording nine points together. Rice had four goals on six shots and Cunningham had two goals and three assists.
They were the consistent picture of what the Quakers showed in spurts. In one spurt, Penn freshman midfield Drew Belinsky scored two goals on three shots for the Quakers’ burgeoning offense.
“Drew’s going to be an anchor for us in this as well as [during] his four years,” Murphy said.
Winkoff sees the rise of Belinsky and the rest of the team’s freshmen as a great way for the team’s scoring attack to more fully blossom into Murphy’s vision, and he assumes responsibility for helping make that possible.
“I just try to keep everyone organized on the field and make sure we’re running out of our sets,” Winkoff said. “My role on the team is to work within the flow of the offense.”
