Penn St. Falls to St. Mary's in Tour Opener

by Daniel Holzhauer

The Penn State Nittany Lions opened up their ambitious stretch of non-conference road matches, which includes stops at Cal and Life University, by losing big, 59-10, at St. Mary's College on Friday afternoon.

The St. Mary's College Gaels proved to be the better team, as they scored 42 unanswered points and put away Penn State early in the second half. The Gael's backline was too strong and aggressive for the opposition, which led to repeated breakaways caused by missed tackles.

Senior fullback Tim Maupin began the route when his converted try put the Gaels up 24-10 with just seconds remaining in the first half. It would prove to be Maupin's day as he scored three more tries in the second half. Maupin's third try was from an offload after his outside center made a long run.

The Gaels jumped all over Penn State and opened up the game with a 17-0 lead. The Nittany Lions refused to give up and they clawed their way back into the game with a converted try and a penalty kick that dew the score to 17-10, but they were unable to capitalize on some early sloppy play from St. Mary's.

Junior Garrett Brewer also turned in an exceptional performance, going 8 for 8 on conversions. Brewer also scored a try during the second half blitz when the Gael's #11 streaked down the wing from the inside of his own half and offloaded to Brewer in the Penn State end.

St. Mary's will finish off their weekend by hosting California Conference opponents Santa Clara on Saturday.