The Massachusetts men’s lacrosse team knew what it was up against in Penn State.

The Nittany Lions were led all season by the likes of attack Jack Forster and goalkeeper Austin Kaut – two of the better players in the Colonial Athletic Association this year – and UMass prepared accordingly going into Wednesday’s CAA semifinal.

The Minutemen spent the entire game locked in on Forster defensively and trying to solve Kaut in goal. Both players had solid games – Forster had two goals and Kaut made 11 saves – but it was Shane Sturgis who was the game-changer. The junior attack had four second-half goals to lead Penn State to a 10-7 win in University Park, Pa., ending UMass’ season.

Sturgis failed to score in the first meeting between the teams on March 16, but made the Minutemen take notice on Wednesday.

“He had a good game,” UMass coach Greg Cannella said of Sturgis. “He racked us a couple times … and he was the difference maker (Wednesday).”

Tied at 6-6 with 12 minutes, 11 seconds left in the game, Forster beat Zachary Oliveri (10 saves) with a wraparound goal to give Penn State its first lead since the middle of the third quarter.

T.J. Sanders followed 25 seconds later to double the Nittany Lions’ lead to 8-6.

But Penn State wasn’t done.

Two minutes later, it was Sturgis who seized the game, weaving his way through the UMass defense to beat Oliveri with 9:28 to play to give Penn State its biggest lead of the game on his fourth goal of the afternoon. Sanders then sealed it with a tally at 5:19 to give the Nittany Lions the commanding 10-6 advantage.

“They had a little bit more energy than us,” Cannella said. “I think we got tired. We played way too much defense (Wednesday), way too much. (Penn State) grinded it out on us and did a very good job, had long possessions on offense, we had a couple short ones, and I think that was the difference.”

Grant Whiteway tried to make it interesting with 4:33 to play when he completed a hat trick to cut UMass’ deficit to 10-7. But it was too little, too late for the Minutemen as Kaut shut down the Minutemen’s offense down the stretch, including a big save on a Will Manny one-on-one attempt with 1:20 left.

Although Kaut was an obvious factor throughout the game, Cannella didn’t think the offense took enough quality shots to win the game.

“Regardless of the goalie, you still have to go out there and play and shoot the ball,” Cannella said. “We shot it pretty well in the first half. Second half we struggled to score. They zoned us again a bunch in the second half, we got some really good looks, but couldn’t put it in the back of the net.”

UMass had the game in its favor throughout the first half, as Oliveri got the better of Kaut in the goalkeeping battle. Connor Mooney put the Minutemen up 4-3 with 2:30 left in the first half, and Oliveri made a big stop as time expired to preserve the lead at halftime.

But as the second half began, Sturgis got rolling. The junior raced down field, wheeled around the cage and fired one past Oliveri for the equalizer at 12:28.

Sturgis then put the Nittany Lions ahead, 5-4, at 8:55, beating Oliveri top right.

Mooney and Whiteway responded with goals just over a minute apart from one another to regain UMass’ lead, but Sturgis halted the Minutemen’s momentum with 1:31 left in the third to tie the game at 6-6. Ryan Hollenbaugh bit on Sturgis’ shot fake, and the attack moved in and scored to set the stage for a dominant fourth quarter.

Manny and Kyle Smith each scored in their final games at UMass in the first half – Manny also had a pair assists – but neither they nor the rest of the offense could put enough together in the second half to give the Minutemen a chance at an upset.

“I think we could’ve played better,” Cannella said. “In every game I thought we could’ve played better. We had a lot of opportunities that we didn’t connect on.”

Nick Canelas can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @NickCanelas.