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Nothing like jumping right into the fire. The opening Saturday of the college lacrosse season featured two overtime games, a Top 10 team going down and a 10-point effort from one of this year's Tewaaraton favorites.

The game of the day took place inside the toasty warm confines of Penn State's Holuba Hall where No. 20 Villanova used a torrid comeback to upset the No. 9 Nittany Lions 17-16 in overtime.

Penn State, playing without injured playmaker Grant Ament, had little trouble generating offense without its star. The Nittany Lions scored four goals in the final 5:14 of the third quarter to take a 14-9 lead, its largest of the game, entering the fourth quarter.

Villanova then erupted for seven fourth quarter goals, taking a 16-15 lead on Danny Seibel's man-up goal with 4:07 to play.

Penn State answered, forcing overtime on Kevin Hill's goal with just 58 seconds remaining in regulation.

Villanova's Luke Palmadesso won the faceoff to himself to open the overtime period, and then John Kluh, a sixth-year senior who missed two seasons with medical redshirts earlier in his career, scored the game-winner 50 seconds into overtime.
 

Kluh, a 5-foot-4, 140-pound midfielder was perhaps previously best known for this hit on Maryland's Dylan Maltz last season.

Christian Cuccinello led Villanova with five goals and Colin Kirst played a major role in the Wildcats' comeback. Kirst had a goal and three assists, all of them coming in the fourth quarter.

Ryan Keenan led Penn State with five goals and two assists and Hill added three goals.

Saturday's other overtime finish had Boston University edging Providence 12-11 on John MacLean's game-winner. MacLean had four goals in the game. Marisa Ingemi was on site and will have more later for US Lacrosse Magazine from the Terriers big win over its New England rival.

Down South, No. 1 Duke erased back-to-back years of frustration against Air Force with an 18-4 victory behind three goals and seven assists from Justin Guterding. Matt White checks in on the Blue Devils, and Air Force, which was playing under interim head coach Bill Wilson. All-American attackman Chris Walsch and defenseman and all-league defenseman Brandon Jones did not make the trip.

In other games of note from Saturday:

  • Christian Trasolini scored three goals, all of them coming during a five goal run for No. 7 Rutgers, as the Scarlet Knights downed Robert Morris 11-7. Jules Heningburg had a hand in over half of Rutgers' goals, finishing with a goal and five assists.

  • No. 8 Ohio State pulled away in the second half before a sold out crowd at Cleveland State, beating the Vikings 13-6. John Kelly (4g) and Tre LeClaire (3g, 1a) led the way as the Buckeyes outscored CSU 8-2 in the second half. 

  • No. 10 North Carolina scored six times in the first quarter and downed Lafayette 17-10. Timmy Kelly and Tanner Cook each scored three goals for the Tar Heels, and freshman Luke Millican got the nod in goal. The Dallas-area native made eight saves while allowing just seven goals in over 50 minutes of action.

  • Bucknell overcame a four-goal deficit to beat Marist 11-9 behind two goals and six assists from Will Sands. Connor O'Hara scored four times for the Bison and freshman Ben Clark came off the bench in goal, allowing just two goals over the final 43 minutes of the game.

  • Junior Mickey Fitzpatrick had a career-high three goals as Lehigh pulled away in the second half to beat NJIT 13-8. Leading just 6-5, Lehigh scored four straight goals to open the third quarter, two of them by Fitzpatrick. Andrew Pettit also had three goals for the Mountain Hawks and Conor Gaffney won 18-of-25 faceoffs. Freshman James Spence made nine saves to earn the win.

  • Two days after becoming the first NCAA team to earn a victory on the season, Vermont became the first team to go 2-0, beating Mercer 11-3. Sophomore Nick Washuta went the distance in goal, making nine saves while allowing just the three goals to earn the win. Liam Limoges, Rob Hudson and Liam Rischmann all had two goals for the Catamounts.

  • Bryant scored seven times in the first quarter on the way to a 15-7 win over Manhattan. Marc O'Rourke (3g, 2a) and Cam Ziegler (3g, 1a) led the Bulldogs and Kenny Massa won 19-of-24 faceoffs.