Tynan Walsh, Emmet Carroll Fuel Penn's Wild 17-16 Comeback Win Over Yale

PHILADELPHIA — It was certainly the shot Yale wanted, and it was most definitely by the player Yale wanted.

Leo Johnson passed from the endline, hitting Matt Brandau on his right side. It was a good angle in front of Penn goalie Emmet Carroll. Brandau ripped it high, but Penn’s first-year starter moved quickly, punching the ball up in the air and well out of harm’s way.

CHAOS AT FRANKLIN FIELD @PennMensLax holds on in the final seconds thanks to a Emmet Carroll.

PENN
YALE pic.twitter.com/fht3mxngY5

— USA Lacrosse Magazine (@USALacrosseMag) April 1, 2023

It was a fitting finish to a back-and-forth, up-and-down track meet — fitting for historic Franklin Field, home of the Penn Relays — as Penn outlasted the Bulldogs 17-16 in front of 1,327. Carroll made 12 saves, and Penn scored the final three goals in the last 3:33 to come back and win.

“They do a really good job of setting picks on the crease and curling into them to get their best guys shots,” Carroll said. “They got Matt Brandau a good shot … and it worked out.”

Brendan Lavelle, Carroll’s teammate since childhood, kept Brandau off balance for much of the game. Yale’s star still managed three goals, but he had to work for it on 11 shots. Instead it was Johnson who led the Bulldogs with four goals and two assists.

Johnson put the ball in an optimal place for Brandau to shoot it on that final play. Lavelle dived in an attempt to block the shot, and BJ Farrare also got his body in the way. But Carroll said he still saw it all the way. Lavelle never doubted his fellow Rye, N.Y., native for a second.

“He’s a beast,” Lavelle said. “I knew he was going to be everything that he’s talked up to be. We’ve played together since we were 3 or 4, and he’s just an animal. He’s done that to offenses forever, as long as I can remember. He just takes the will out of the shooters, which is awesome. It’s pretty crazy to see.”

Penn (4-4, 2-1 Ivy) entered struggling on the offensive end. The Quakers showed signs of life last weekend in an 18-12 loss to Cornell, but ever since Dylan Gergar went down on March 8 with a season-ending injury, Penn had been searching for answers.

A suddenly defensively challenged team in Yale, which was coming off a 20-10 loss to Cornell and a 23-10 loss to Princeton, helped unlock some latent potential.

Tynan Walsh, thrust into a starting role after Gergar’s injury, had yet to capitalize on his new role. In his first two starts, he took just two shots and produced one assist. In his last two starts, he has six goals, including a pivotal four against Yale. He kickstarted the scoring for Penn, which jumped out to a 4-0 lead after Walsh finished a feed from Ben Smith with 7:422 left in the first quarter.

“He’s one of the best players I’ve ever played with,” Walsh said of Gergar. “It’s really tough to have him not on the field. Someone has to step up and play, and I think today we showed that we can play.”

Penn led 7-4 after Matt Palazzi’s first goal of the year with 13:51 left in the second quarter, but that awakened Yale (3-4, 0-3 Ivy). The Bulldogs dominated Penn the remainder of the period, taking an 11-9 lead into the locker room. They had scored five straight, all by different players, to turn a 7-4 deficit into a 9-7 lead.

The halftime lead was nearly one goal larger, but Penn’s James Shipley made one of the highlight reel efforts of the game in the waning seconds of the first half. Off a Chris Arceri faceoff win with 5.9 seconds left, Shipley picked up the loose ball in Penn territory and delivered a 50-yard line drive right on the crease to Smith, who deposited a shot past Jared Paquette (10 saves).

It wasn’t necessarily a momentum-shifting goal, because Yale opened the third quarter with two more goals to extend the lead to 13-9, but in what turned out to be a one-goal win, it might have been the most important play of the game.

“That was unbelievable,” Penn coach Mike Murphy said. “Shipley made the only play he could make. He just threw it down there. We talk about those things and work on them at times, but you don’t expect them to work 1-for-1 in a game like that. Just a heads up play by Shipley and a heads up play by [Smith] to catch it and score.”

PENN AT THE BUZZER

A -yard dime from Shipley puts @PennMensLax within 11-9 at the half. pic.twitter.com/8SAdLA50Va

— USA Lacrosse Magazine (@USALacrosseMag) April 1, 2023

A quiet third quarter — at least compared to the helter-skelter first half — made way for a fourth quarter in which Penn tied the score at 14, allowed Yale to take a 16-14 lead and then scored the final three goals. Robert Schain made it 16-15, Smith knotted it at 16, then Casey Mulligan found Walsh for the finishing blow with 1:17 remaining.

Penn overcame five failed clears, 17 turnovers (compared Yale’s 16, to be fair) and six penalties totaling 4:30 to win. The Quakers didn’t score on two extra-man opportunities. Yale cashed in on 3 of 6.

“As gritty as a performance as I’ve seen in awhile, but a lot of things we have to clean up,” Murphy said. “A lot of those things are technical, like the shot decisions and the way we shot them, and certainly some things technically and tactically on defense. A lot of it is just keeping our heads. Some of the penalties … we have to eliminate those things if we want to beat good teams moving forward.”

It helps when players like Walsh step up when called upon, especially when replacing a program staple like Gergar. Murphy hopes the San Diego sophomore’s performance is a sign of things to come.

“I think that’s what we’ve been waiting for,” he said.