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No. 5 Penn Drops No. 15 Duke 7-5 to Advance to 9th Place Game at National Collegiate Club Championship
ATHENS, Ohio -- Ben Naecker (Sr., Pasadena, Calif.) scored twice to earn Player of the Game honors and lead the No. 5 nationally ranked Quakers of the University of Pennsylvania to a 7-5 win over No. 15 Duke University at the 2008 National Collegiate Club Championship on the campus of Ohio University.
Penn, the Mid-Atlantic Division champion, will face No. 16 Texas A&M University at 2:15 p.m. on Sunday, November 16 in the ninth place game, while Duke will meet the No. 10 ranked Buffaloes of the University of Colorado at 3:30 p.m. in the 11th place game.
Trailing 1-0 following a score by Duke's Charlie Neiman (Jr., Bellevue, Wash.) on a penalty shot with 2:27 left in the first period, the Quakers put together a 7-0 scoring run which ran for over 15 and a half minutes to go in front 7-1 with 6:23 left in the fourth period.
Alex Valner (So., Los Angeles, Calif.) started the scoring spree with an exclusion goal at 1:02 of the first period to tie the score. Naecker added an even strength goal 46 seconds later to put Penn in front to stay at 2-1 at the end of the first period, and tacked on another score 1:24 into the second period to push the margin to 3-1.
Jay Fantone (Gr., Ann Arbor, Mich.) registered a score at 2:15 of the second period to make it 4-1 before John Gillette (Sr., Bayshore, Trinidad) and Mike Czubakowski (So., Nashville, Tenn.) racked up points at 5:07 and 4:10 of the third period for a 6-1 lead. Fantone built the advantage to 7-1 with 6:23 left in the fourth period as he netted his second goal of the day.
However, the Blue Devils would not go down so easily as Ryan Goldhahn (Gr., Lodi, Calif.) and Jamie Friedland (Sr., Chicago, Ill.) scored on an exclusion opportunities at the 5:03 and 2:34 marks, respectively. Friedland punched up his second goal of the game 90 seconds later with an even strength marker and Neiman netted his second tally with 32 ticks left on the game clock to set the final score.
In goal, Michael Rico (Sr., San Jose, Calif.) picked up the win for the Quakers making nine saves, while Ted Belsches (Sr., Duthan, Ala.) took the loss for Duke with seven saves.
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final |
| Duke University | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 5 |
| University of Pennsylvania | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 7 |
Penn Goals: Jay Fantone (2); Ben Naecker (2); Alex Valner; Mike Czubakowski; John Gillette
Duke Goals: Jamie Friedland (2); Charlie Neiman (2); Ryan Goldhahn
Saves: Penn - Michael Rico (9) ; Duke - Ted Belsches (7)
Ejections: Penn - 7 ; Duke 4
Sprints: Penn - 2 (1st & 3rd) ; Duke - 1 (2nd)
