Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
Penn State’s lacrosse team found itself trailing Ohio State on Sunday but appeared to narrow the deficit with a goal in the third quarter. However, the score ended up unchanged after the officials who took a second look at the play somehow managed to screw up what should have been an incredibly straightforward review.
The men’s lacrosse team at Penn State was sitting at 6-1 and ranked #4 in the country when it hosted an Ohio State team that was 8-1 and listed at #9 when the two squads met on Sunday for their first showdown with a fellow Big Ten team this season.
The Nittany Lions pulled out to a 2-0 lead and were up by three toward the start of the second quarter before the Buckeyes started to surge after taking advantage of their first penalty of the night, and the two teams headed into the locker room at halftime knotted at five goals apiece before Ohio State took control after heading back onto the field.
The Buckeyes scored four unanswered goals and were up 9-5 with less than six minutes to go in the third quarter when Penn State’s Jack Aimone appeared to stop the bleeding on the man advantage by firing a shot that sailed past Ohio State goaltender Caleb Fyock before striking the crossbar and bouncing on the ground a solid foot behind the goal line.
Penn State coach Jeff Tambroni used a coach’s challenge to trigger a review after the refs failed to signal a goal, and while it’s easy to understand how they missed it in real-time, it seemed like a pretty clear-cut call on the replay they reviewed before upholding the original ruling (which led to the skipper understandably blowing his lid on the sideline).
This shot was ruled NO GOAL after video review…
…and @PennStateMLAX head coach Jeff Tambroni is LIVID ❌🤬
(via BTN) pic.twitter.com/elXjODIseA
— TLN 🥍 (@LacrosseNetwork) March 24, 2025
This isn’t the first time Penn State has gotten hosed by the refs. In 2023, they lost to Duke on a missed call in the semifinals of the national championship tournament, which led to the NCAA overhauling its instant replay rules because the play in question wasn’t eligible for review at the time.
This goal (or lack thereof) may not have mattered as much in a game where Ohio State walked away with a 13-9 victory, but it’s still a pretty inexcusable oversight.