Sara Ku/Collegian

Jim Connolly did it again.

The No. 14 Massachusetts men’s lacrosse team thanked its senior attack once again on Saturday afternoon after he scored the game-winning goal with 55.2 seconds left in the game to beat Penn State, 9-8.

The Minutemen extended their winning streak to two after Connolly’s diving, wraparound shot snuck over goalkeeper Drew Adams’ right shoulder.

‘I don’t know what it was, but he got in pretty tight and he got past them and he finished it,’ UMass coach Greg Cannella said. ‘Thankfully for us, it was a great individual play from a senior and obviously you want your seniors to play big for you in games like this.’

‘ The performance of the senior’s once again led to the Minutemen’s win, with a hat trick from Connolly and Tim Balise, along with a strong performance in goal by Doc Schneider (15 saves, including 12 in the second half).

With 30 seconds remaining in the game, Penn State‘s leading scorer Chris Hogan (one goal) took one last shot hoping to tie the game at nine, but Schneider was ready and his save secured the Minutemen’s victory.

‘ ‘In the first quarter [Hogan] stuck the same type of shot on me. It wasn’t that I was guessing he was going to shoot that, I just knew I got to get my hands up, my body up,’ Schneider said. ‘And I made a real tough save on a great shot.’

UMass (5-3, 2-0 ECAC) started the scoring off, going up 2-0 at the start of the first period with a man-up goal by Mike Fetterly at 13 minutes, 48 seconds and Balise’s first goal at 8:43.

The teams traded goals for the majority of the match up ‘- the game was tied six different times (at two, three, four, six, seven and eight). Penn State took the lead twice at 14:05 in the second period with a goal from Colton Vosburgh making the score 3-2, and again at 9:41 in the second with Jack Forster’s second goal of the game, putting the score at 4-3.

The third period was a struggle for the Minutemen, who were outscored 2-1, they had seven turnovers compared to Penn State‘s one, and only took six shots to the Nittany Lion’s 15.

‘Not a great period for us, especially coming out leading 6-4,’ Cannella said. ‘We had 18 turnovers for the game, seven in the third quarter. You’ve got to get it to 10 or 12 a game, limit it that way. That really cost us; it allowed Penn State to really handle the ball a lot in the third quarter, we got tired defensively.’

Balise had the lone UMass goal in the third period after a successful offensive play by the Minutemen.

‘It was one of the only times in the third quarter that we moved the ball more than once,’ said Cannella. ‘We moved it twice and got it to Timmy and fortunately he put it where Adams (13 saves) wasn’t. It was a huge goal for us.’

The Minutemen were successful on clears, going 21-for-24. Penn State (3-5, 0-3 ECAC) failed on seven clears, going 21-for-28, and failed clears often resulted in goals for UMass. Failed clears have harmed UMass against teams like Brown, Loyola and Albany, where the Minutemen have turned the ball over and the opposing team has scored.

The Minutemen have struggled maintaining momentum and winning back-to-back games. UMass has a chance to extend its winning streak to three when it hosts St. John’s next Saturday.

‘It’s great to get a second one in a row for our whole team’s confidence,’ Balise said. ‘Now we can try and keep this rolling for our next game.’

Game notes

Connolly now has 22 goals and three assists on the season, Connolly’s game-winning goal was his second of the season ‘hellip; UMass had goals from five players: Connolly, Balise, Art Kell, Ryan Hantverk and Mike Fetterly.

Melissa Turtinen can be reached at mturtinen@dailycollegian.com.