BALTIMORE, Md. â The No. 15-ranked University of Michigan men's lacrosse team defeated top-seeded and No. 4-ranked Penn State 17-15 on Thursday (May 4) at Johns Hopkins' Homewood Field. With the win, U-M advances to the Big Ten Tournament Championship for the first time in program history.
The Wolverines will face either No. 5 Johns Hopkins or Maryland in the championship game on Saturday (May 6) at 5:30 p.m. on Big Ten Network.
Senior Josh Zawada became the first Wolverine in program history to reach 200 career points after his five-point performance (three goals, two assists) Thursday. He will enter Saturday's championship contest with 202 points on 113 goals and 89 assists.
Penn State (9-4) took an early lead, scoring two goals in the first five minutes of the opening quarter. Michigan (8-6) responded with two goals to tie the game at 2. Junior Michael Boehm scored at the 8:28 mark of the first quarter with another goal coming from senior Josh Zawada at 8:14. After another Penn State goal, Michigan responded quickly as senior Michael Cosgrove scored his first goal of the season with 5:33 left in the first quarter. Penn State scored two more goals to take a 5-3 lead with three minutes left in the quarter. Michigan tied the game once again with a goal from junior Isaac Aronson at the 44 second mark followed by sophomore Emmett Houlihan scoring with four seconds left in the first.
In the second quarter, Penn State scored again at 13:34 before Houlihan marked his second of the game at the 13:09 mark. Zawada scored with 2:57 left in the second quarter, bringing the score to 9-8 before the half ended 10-8 in Penn State's favor.
Michigan opened the second half with five unanswered goals to take a 13-10 lead. Senior Kevin Pimental scored at 14:16 followed by Boehm's second of the game at the 9:56 mark. With 9:22 left in the third, junior Justin Brown tallied his first goal of the season. Less than two minutes later (7:40), sophomore Ryan Cohen scored before Brown scored again at the 6:40 mark.
Penn State was held scoreless until the 1:32 mark of the third quarter, breaking a 16-minute scoreless streak. The third quarter concluded with a goal from senior Jacob Jackson in the final 20 seconds.
In the fourth quarter, Boehm recorded his third goal of the game at the 12:19 mark before Bonomi added his second with 10:18 remaining, bringing the score to 16-11. Penn State responded with three goals to cut the Wolverines' lead to two before Zawada scored an empty-net goal with 1:29 on the clock to bring the contest to the final tally of 17-15.
Boehm recorded a six-point game with three goals and three assists while Zawada also recorded three goals with two assists.
Brown and Bonomi also added a pair of goals. Junior Justin Wietfeldt won 12 of 17 faceoffs with 11 ground balls, while graduate Nick Rowlett won 11 of 18 faceoffs and had 10 ground balls. Freshman goalie Hunter Taylor entered at the half and made eight saves against five goals allowed.
