April 9, 2005

Rory Melvin beat Penn State's goalie on this extra-man goal in the second quarter, but the Nittany Lions won 19-13. (Photo by Ken DeBolt)

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.—First-year attackman Daryl Veltman (Salisbury School/Georgetown, Ontario) scored a career-high eight points against Penn State, but it was the Nittany Lions who posted the ECAC Lacrosse League victory, 19-13, at Jeffrey Field. Veltman’s eight points, on four goals and four assists, are the most by a Statesman since John Bogosian ’03 also recorded eight points (6-2) on Feb. 23, 2003.

Penn State (4-5, 2-1 ECAC) needed just five seconds to post its first goal of the contest. It was 2-0 before Veltman finished a feed from senior attackman Nate Hill (Hamburg/Hamburg, N.Y.). The Nittany Lions responded with two more goals, before junior midfielder Pat Meade (Schenectady/Schenectady, N.Y.) rifled home an unassisted tally at the 9:40 mark of the first quarter.

PSU rattled off four unanswered goals in just 81 seconds to build an 8-2 lead with 7:28 remaining in the opening stanza. Both teams netted a pair of goals before the close of the opening session to leave Penn State a 10-4 lead.

The Statesmen (5-4, 1-2 ECAC) shook off their poor start to outscore their hosts 5-1 in the second quarter. Sophomore attackman Rory Melvin (Episcopal Academy/Bryn Mawr, Pa.) got things going with a man-up goal at the 11:44 mark. Less than a minute later, senior attackman Sean Reed (Waterloo/Waterloo, N.Y.) buried another extra-man goal. Both tallies were set up by Veltman.

Veltman got a goal of his own at the 7:57 mark, finishing a fast-break feed from junior defenseman Matt Murhpy (Haverford/Havertown, Pa.).

Faceoff specialist Greg Gurenlian netted the only PSU goal of the second quarter, winning the restart and driving straight to the cage. In addition to a goal and an assist, the junior won 21-of-32 faceoffs and collected a game-high 13 ground balls.

Hobart closed out the first half scoring on goals by senior midfielder Chris Scanlon (Corning West/Painted Post, N.Y.) and junior attackman Mike Conklin (West Genesee/Syracuse, N.Y.) to trim the Nittany Lions lead to 11-9.

Just 31 seconds into the second half, Veltman, who finished with four goals and four assists, brought the Statesmen within one, 11-10, but Hobart managed just three goals over the final 29 minutes of the contest.

First-year Chris Courteau made eight saves for Penn State, while junior Mike DeSantis (Mountain Lakes/Mountain Lakes, N.J.) allowed 11 goals and made 10 stops in 51 minutes of relief work for the Statesmen.

Hobart returns to action at 1 p.m. on April 16, when UMass visits Boswell Field.