Penn State Handles St. Joseph’s

Story posted February 15, 2020 in

The Penn State Nittany Lions handily beat Saint Joseph’s Sunday afternoon. Led by Mac O’Keefe’s six goals, the Nittany Lions cruised to a 19-4 win.

Coming into the game, Penn State was 2-0, coming off of a win over Villanova last Saturday. Saint Joseph’s came to Happy Valley with a record of  1-0, its win coming against St. Bonaventure.

St. Joseph opened up the scoring in its first possession, but one half of Penn State’s deadly duo, Mac O’Keefe responded quickly, evening the score at one. The rest of the first quarter was much of the same. O’Keefe secured his second goal with Grant Ament and TJ Malone each securing goals of their own as well.

O’Keefe and Ament would continue to find each other throughout the rest of the first half, with Ament assisting O’Keefe on four of his five first-half goals.

The Hawks didn’t help their own cause, putting in a rare own goal as the first half wound to a close. On the other side of the field, the Nittany Lion goalkeeper, Colby Kneese, made eight saves on nine.

“It’s always great to see Colby break out like that,” Penn State defenseman, Jeff Cardile, said. “Some of those saves, you turn around and you’re like ‘okay’. You’re kind of just anticipating a goal.”

The Hawks didn’t find their next goal until the third quarter, when Levi Anderson found the twine, unassisted, on an odd-man rush.

The Nittany Lions continued their dominance throughout the second half, with eight different players making their way into the goal column.

Nittany Lion coach, Jeff Tambroni, made the decision to switch goaltenders when the score reached 15-2. Redshirt freshman, Aleric Fyock, replaced Kneese with just over seven minutes in the fourth quarter. Kneese finished the afternoon with 12 saves on 14 shots.

“They played very well in practice,” Tambroni said. “Hopefully this will continue to encourage them as a group to work together. I think they’ve been a lot more aggressive each day and work on collaboration and chemistry.”

This win brings Penn State to 3-0 on the season. Mac O’Keefe’s six goals brings his season total to 16, and Ament’s six assists bring his assist total to 17.

Penn State will take the field again next Saturday at home against no. 3 Yale. That game will begin at noon.

 

Nathan Pullen is a public relations major. To contact him, email nap236@psu.edu.