Penn State Men’s Lacrosse Knocks Off Yale in Historic Upset

Story posted February 28, 2022 in CommRadio, Sports by Aidan Torok

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State got back on track with a programming-defining victory over Yale 10-6. Penn State was in a freefall its last three games. However, the Nittany Lions were able to silence their doubters Saturday and improved to 2-3 on the season.

“It's a big win. We have some history with [Yale],” redshirt junior goalie Aleric Fyock said. “We are excited to celebrate it, but we are also ready for the next game.”

This is a historic victory for the Nittany Lions. After a slow start to the season this win has the potential to turn the year around. 

Junior Will Cabrera opened the scoring by ripping a shot past Fyock. Cabrera added another goal shortly after. However, Fyock was a brick wall for the rest of the afternoon and stifled Yale’s offensive attack.

Coming into the game, coach Jeff Tambroni wasn’t committed to starting Fyock in goal. Saturday, Fyock played his best game of the young season. Fyock recorded 21 saves with a 77.8 save percentage.

“[Fyock] was terrific today. He worked really hard and continued to battle through some of the demons the last few games,” Tambroni said. “Had a really good week of practice. He gave our defense a ton of confidence as the game went on.”

Fyock was outstanding, but redshirt freshman Jeb Brenfleck was the ignitor offensively. Brenfleck totaled three goals along with an assist.

“Keep believing in ourselves. Not a lot of people outside our locker room believe in us,” Brenfleck said. “But we have faith in our guys and our coaching staff and our gamplan.”

Despite not playing since March 2020, Yale is one of the top teams in the nation. Coming into the contest, Yale was ranked No. 5 in the country with a win over Villanova. Yale has also had Penn State’s number the last couple of years winning five straight.

Penn State’s key to its success was its defense. After falling behind early, Penn State was able to slow the pace down and control most of the possessions. Coming out of halftime, Penn State was a different team.

“We felt like we needed to focus our efforts on the possession disadvantage,” Tambroni said. “I gave them a lot of credit. No matter what. No matter what we said. Those guys just really worked hard and believed in themselves.”


Aidan Torok is a second-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email ajt6051@psu.edu.

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Aidan Torok

Sophmore / Broadcast Journalism

Aidan Torok is a sophmore from West Caldwell, New Jersey majoring in broadcast journalism at Penn State. He produces content and does play-by-play announcing and beat writing for the CommRadio sports department. If you’d like to contact him, email him at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).