BALTIMORE - UMBC senior attackmen Nate Lewnes (Arnold, Md./St. Mary's) led all scorers with four goals and junior goalkeeper Ruston Souder (Pasadena, Md./Chesapeake) performed brilliantly in the cage with 16 saves, but visiting Penn squeaked out an 8-7 victory over the Retrievers at UMBC Stadium.

Quaker sophomore long-stick defense middie Connor Keating broke a 7-all tie and scored the game winning goal after a Retriever turnover with 4:15 remaining.

UMBC would get three possessions in the final 2:30 to attempt to tie the score. But a Penn blocked shot and Retriever two turnovers down the stretch prevented the gritty effort by the hosts.

UMBC rallied to tie the score three times in the first half, and sophomore midfielder Max Haldeman's (York, Pa.) goal with seven seconds to play in the half sent the teams to the locker room knotted at 3-3.

The Retrievers took their only lead on Lewnes' third goal of the evening at the 6:20 mark of the third quarter. But Penn would go on the only three-goal run of the game, scoring three times in 2:18 in the latter stages of the quarter to take a 6-4 advantage. However, Lewnes took junior linemate Max Maxwell's feed and brought the Retrievers to within 6-5 with five seconds to play in the stanza.

Penn (7-5) stretched the lead to 7-5 just 2:27 into the fourth quarter, but Haldeman scored on a hard-left handed drive just 1:38 later. The southpaw would bring UMBC even at 7-all, completing his first career hat trick and cashing in on Maxwell's fourth helper of the night with 8:07 to play.   

But UMBC (3-9) simply could not overcome 20 turnovers and 10 failed clears in the contest to generate enough offense to prevail. Penn outshot the Retrievers, 47-20 and won 14 of 19 draws to dominate time of possession. Souder tied his season high with 16 stops and UMBC senior defender Zach Esser (Forest Hill, Md./Fallston) led the charge that kept one of the nation's top feeders, Penn senior attackman Nick Doktor, completely off the scoreboard.

Penn's Simon Mathias was his side's top offensive performer, scoring three times and adding two assists.

Lewnes has amassed all 31 of his team-leading goals since returning from injury eight games ago. He has now produced six games this season and 15 career contests in which he has scored hat tricks or better. His 107 career goals are now eighth on UMBC's all-time list.

Maxwell's four assists ties his career best, which he had recorded in four prior outings.

UMBC had not failed on a clearing attempt in the past three games, but failed on half of its 20 tries on the night.

The Retrievers return to America East action on Sunday, April 24 when they travel to Boston to face UMass Lowell.  

(cover photo Brian Gonzalez)