Here’s how Penn State men’s lacrosse won the Big Ten title in OT to continue its historic season
The dream season for the No. 1 Penn State men’s lacrosse team continued Saturday night — but not without a little bit of drama first.
The Nittany Lions were crowned Big Ten champs Saturday night after defeating No. 16 Johns Hopkins 18-17 in overtime at HighPoint.com Stadium in Piscataway, N.J. Penn State surrendered two goals in the final 35 seconds of regulation to allow overtime, but Mac O’Keefe — the Big Ten Tournament MVP — found the back of the net just 25 seconds into the extra period to clinch victory.
Penn State swarmed the field after the goal, hoisting the Big Ten title trophy and holding up a banner during the Big Ten Network telecast.
The performance put an exclamation mark on what has so far been one of the most memorable seasons in the program’s nearly 100-year existence as a varsity squad and nearly 50-year existence as a Division I team.
It was the Nittany Lions’ first Big Ten title, noteworthy even if the conference formed in lacrosse just four years ago. But Penn State also broke, or increased, several national marks. It boosted its country-best winning streak to 11 games, it solidified its spot as the nation’s unanimous No. 1 team, and it’s still the nation’s top offense — outscoring the nation’s No. 2 offense by an average of nearly two goals per game.
On top of all that, Penn State’s Grant Ament — the Big Ten Player of the Year — set the NCAA’s single-season assists record Saturday night by tallying four more, bringing his season total to 78. O’Keefe also scored his 60th goal of the season, becoming the only Nittany Lion in history to reach the 60 mark in a single season.
The NCAA tournament starts with play-in games Wednesday, with the first round taking place May 11-12. Although seedings won’t be announced until 9 p.m. Sunday, the Nittany Lions are almost certain to be the tournament’s top seed with Saturday’s win.
Earlier Saturday, however, victory didn’t always appear to be a certainty.
Johns Hopkins led 11-8 at halftime after scoring the final three goals of the half, including one with just four seconds left on the clock. Fortunately for Penn State, it put a stop to any momentum by opening the third with five goals in the first five minutes to retake the lead, 13-11.
After some back-and-forth, the Nittany Lions found themselves with a 17-15 lead with less than five minutes left in the game. With the clock ticking to under a minute, it looked as if Penn State was poised to win — up until the Blue Jays’ Joey Epstein scored twice, with 34 seconds and then 23 seconds left in regulation.
That led to the dramatic sudden-victory goal in overtime, when O’Keefe took a powerful shot up-close on an assist by TJ Malone.
Other top performers for Penn State included Dylan Foulds (3 goals, 1 assist), Jack Kelly (2 goals, 2 assist) and Colby Kneese (13 saves).
Penn State has faced Johns Hopkins 12 times since 1916. It didn’t get its first win since 2018, but it’s now won the last three games of the series.
With the win, the Nittany Lions are now 14-1, with their last loss coming in a 14-13 thriller against No. 2 Yale back in February. Penn State is also the first Big Ten team to finish perfect in conference play since Maryland in 2016.
This story was originally published May 4, 2019 at 9:43 PM.