Penn State men’s lacrosse targets bounce-back win against high-powered Ohio State offense

Penn State will travel to Columbus to face the No. 11-ranked Ohio State in its second Big Ten match of the year Friday.

Riding a four-game losing streak, with three of those losses coming to current top-10 teams, the Nittany Lions are looking for a massive rebound against the Buckeyes.

However, both teams are coming into this game off of demoralizing losses — Penn State lost 18-7 to top-ranked Maryland, while Ohio State fell 17-8 to No. 5 Rutgers.

The Nittany Lions’ loss to Maryland came at home, and it was one of the largest losses taken in coach Jeff Tambroni’s tenure with the blue and white.

The Terrapins scored the most goals Penn State has allowed all year, and the Nittany Lions lost the most faceoffs they have in a game this season, only winning eight of 29 attempts.

Although Penn State held Maryland scoreless in the fourth frame and rallied to score four of its own, the Terrapins were well on their way to victory, cruising with an 18-3 lead after the third period.

These stats are also similar for the Buckeyes against Rutgers, who recorded their worst loss of the season and most faceoff losses against Rutgers.

Both teams will likely look at this game eagerly as an opportunity to rectify a prior loss in their respective Big Ten openers.

Some crucial players for the blue and white to look out for against Ohio State include a dangerous trio of senior attackmen: Jack Myers, Jackson Reid and Colby Smith.

Together, the three seniors have combined for a total of 67 goals on the year, with Myers and Reid tallying 21 a piece and Smith rounding off that total with 25.

The Buckeyes have another senior attackman in Jason Knox, who’s scored 17 goals on the year as well. This brings their total goals scored to 84 between the four of them this season.

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All other members of this Ohio State team have scored just 44 goals, meaning its attacking quartet has scored about 65.6% of all goals scored for the Buckeyes this year.

Although, the most notable of these four players is easily Myers. Along with his 21 goals scored this year, he also has a hearty 26 assists to his name. There’s only one other member of that team who has 10 assists.

On the Penn State side of the ball, there are hopes senior attackman Jack Traynor will be back in action for the team Friday.

Despite missing the last two games against Bucknell and Maryland, Traynor still leads the team in overall offensive contributions with 14 goals and 9 assists.

However, the Nittany Lions have done well to continue producing offensively, with five other players having tallied at least 10 goals thus far.

Freshman attackman Jeb Brenfleck and redshirt senior midfielder Jack Kelly have scored 13 and 15 goals, respectively. Redshirt senior midfielder Dan Reaume and junior midfielder Mac Costin have scored 12 and 11, respectively, and rounding out this list of five is sophomore midfielder Mark Sickler, with 10 goals on the year.

The Nittany Lions must rely on these crucial players for scores in the absence of their key attackman, Traynor.

Freshman attackman Will Peden has been a force to be reckoned with for the Nittany Lions as well, tallying a respectable eight goals of his own and a team-leading 14 assists. Peden also scored two of his own in the defeat to the Terrapins.

Along with Peden, freshman attackman Nils Barry grabbed a pair of tallies as well. This isn’t an uncommon occurrence for the Nittany Lions, and the attacking freshmen on this team have made large contributions in games this year.

They will have to continue to do so if Penn State has any plans of matching the Buckeyes’ lethal scoring production Friday.

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