Traynor Brothers and Defense Boost Penn State to Victory over Ohio State

Story posted April 2, 2023 in CommRadio, Sports by Adrianna Gallucci

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – It was a beautiful yet cold day at Panzer Stadium, which was ultimately a great day for Penn State’s Big Ten home opener.

The No. 11 Penn State Nittany Lions welcomed the No. 14 Ohio State Buckeyes to Panzer Stadium at noon on April 2 and won 17-9.

Penn State was coming off its loss in its Big Ten opener in College Park, Md., where the Nittany Lions fell to the Maryland Terrapins 13-10.

Penn State and Ohio State held each other steady in the low-scoring first quarter, but a Traynor-Traynor connection and Grant Haus’s first goal of the season put the Nittany Lions up 3-2 at the end of the first fifteen minutes.

Then, it was the Matt Traynor show in the second quarter with his second goal of the day and then a behind-the-back goal for his hat trick. Additionally, goals by Ethan Long, Mac Costin and two goals from Kevin Winkoff opened up a relatively close game to 10-6 in the Nittany Lions’ favor at the end of the first half.

It wasn’t just the starters who contributed to the win. Mac Costin also had a hat trick with an incredible bounce shot for his third in the third quarter, and Luke Mercer also netted one.

The fourth quarter was slower with the first goal from either team coming courtesy of Ohio State’s Kyle Borda at 2:29 left in the game.

Penn State’s offense dominated this game with three different players having hat tricks in both Traynor brothers and Costin.

“I couldn’t be more impressed with the poise and confidence that a young man who’s a sophomore plays with,” head coach Jeff Tambroni said about Matt Traynor. “He gets us off to a great start… he really just keeps himself involved.”

About Jack Traynor, Tambroni also said that it’s been “nice to see him over the last couple weeks” and that he’s “done a really nice job.”

“Both those guys played with uber-confidence… and they certainly gave us a huge boost offensively,” Tambroni said.

Penn State’s offense was the difference maker in the game, but the defense crucially held back an otherwise hungry Ohio State team with the likes of Jack Posey and Kevin Parnham, who came back from an injury.

“[Posey] prepares consistently throughout the course of each week… and [he’s] become a true leader,” Tambroni said.

The Penn State defensive squad caused 12 turnovers and picked up 40 ground balls in this game.

Hudson Bohn and Chase Mullins took most of the faceoffs, and the two went 15-for-27 in the circle (Richie Hughson took and lost one).

“I was really proud of our faceoff guys, win or lose, that was not the main concern,” Tambroni said. “We obviously wanted possession, but let’s make it a burden if we lost it, and let’s get into our fair share of ground balls and get that ball on the defensive end.”

Jack Fracyon saved 12 and gave up nine goals while looking solid in the net for fifty-seven minutes.

Penn State will be home for its next game against Johns Hopkins on April 8 at 7 p.m.

Adrianna Gallucci is a first-year student majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact her, please email amg7989@psu.edu.