College: Yale gets 7-6 OT road win vs #11/13 Penn, McGovern with 1G 2A in defensive struggle

Yale's JW McGovern

Yale travelled to Franklin Field in Philly today, taking on the #11/13 Penn Quakers. Goals were hard to  come by today and, in a defensive struggle, Yale prevailed in OT, 7-6. Three of Yale's seven goals came on Man Up, while Penn had 2 of its 6 goals on EMO. Only eight goals combined were scored all even!

NorCal's JW McGovern, former SI 2x AA, had 1G 2A today, all coming on man-up situations. He paired up with Brandon Mangan, Yale's Junior Tewaaraton Candidate, on all three points, feeding 2 and receiving 1 from the Bulldog Junior.

Here's the game write-up from Philadelphia:

No. 13 Penn Rallies But Falls to Yale in Overtime

PHILADELPHIA - University of Pennsylvania fought back from a two-goal deficit two different times on Saturday, but it was washed away in a second as Yale scored in overtime to defeat the 13th-ranked Quakers, 7-6, at Franklin Field.

With the loss, Penn fell to 5-3 overall, 1-2 in Ivy League play. Yale, which had been a hard-luck team with Ivy losses to frontrunners Cornell and Princeton, improved to 4-3 overall and 1-2 in Ivy play.

Penn won the faceoff to start overtime, Danny Feeney again besting Yale's Dylan Levings. However, the Quakers' possession went by the boards as Drew Belinsky's quick-stick shot was stopped by Yale goalkeeper Eric Natale. The Bulldogs brought the ball down, and Brandon Mangan completed a superb game by coming around to the left post from behind and finding an open Kirby Zdrill in front. Zdrill quick-sticked the shot past Brian Feeney to end it.

It was a day where offense was hard to come by, especially of the 6-on-6 variety.

It did not appear that would be the case early. Penn jumped out to a 2-0 lead just three minutes into the game, first Zack Losco scoring unassisted and then Will Davy rebounding and finishing a shot less than a minute later.

As it turned out, that was pretty much Penn's offense in the quarter. Yale outshot the Quakers 13-5 in the period, 23-7 in the half, and if the Bulldogs had put the ball on target more this game could have been a lot different. Instead, the first goal did not come until just 4:33 remained in the half, Mangan finally scoring in a man-up situation off a John-William McGovern feed. The penalty was a non-releasable, and Yale took advantage to score again, Mangan and McGovern reversing roles the second time.

Colin Flaherty gave Yale its first lead with 3:08 left in the half on an unassisted goal. In the third quarter, nearly 10 minutes went by before anyone scored, again Mangan from McGovern on the extra man to give the Bulldogs a 4-3 advantage.

Penn ended a scoreless drought of 38 minutes and 40 seconds when Losco finished a Tim Schwalje feed in a man-up situation, then Schwalje evened the score off a feed from Nick Doktor with 2:27 left in the third quarter.

Yale responded. Mangan finished a Zdrill feed with 1:36 left in the third, then opened the fourth-quarter scoring with an unassisted tally, his fourth of the game. That made the score 6-4.

Penn made it 6-5 when Belinsky rocketed a feed from Schwalje past Natale, and then the Quakers drew level again on a crazy sequence that saw Yale called for two one-minute penalties (one non-releasable), get the ball back, but then be offsides on offense after breaking Penn's pressure defense. Given a second chance, Penn made no mistake -- Schwalje found Isaac Bock, and he finished to tie it. That set the stage for overtime.

Yale outshot Penn 40-27 for the game, and the face-off battle was fairly even as Yale won it 9-8. Feeney ended the game with nine saves in the Penn cage, while Natale had 10 stops for Yale.

Nice day, JW!