COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The Haverford College men's lacrosse team recorded a remarkable comeback victory over host Ursinus College scoring the final four goals of the game—including the game-winner by Travis Gregory with less than a minute remaining in a second overtime period—to bring home a 9-8 double-overtime Centennial Conference win Wednesday night.
Haverford's Dillon Hamill caused a turnover by Ursinus' Jake West with 1:07 on the clock in the second OT and Gregory finished the play off with his game-winning goal 26 seconds later.
Gregory's winning tally was the fourth consecutive goal by Haverford (6-5, 2-3 CC) who trailed the Bears (8-2, 3-2 CC) by an 8-5 score with 8:33 to play in regulation.
Ursinus nabbed a lead with three seconds remaining in the opening period and maintained the upper hand until a final, fourth period Haverford flurry.
Max Hjelm pulled the Fords within two at the 5:17 mark off an assist by Phillip Valliant. Thirty-three seconds later Hjelm cut Ursinus' margin to just one, this time off a pass from Andrew Kim.
Gregory's tying goal exactly one minute later, off an assist from Hjelm, ended up sending the contest into an extra period but not before Fords goalie Joe Banno made a save on Eric Farris' shot just ahead of the horn.
In that first four-minute extra period Haverford registered the only shot-on-goal as the Bears' T.J. Magnani stopped Hjelm midway through.
Banno stepped up big again in the second OT at the 2:35 mark picking up the save on Jeff Ocampo, who tallied three goals for the hosts in the loss.
Magnani then stopped Zach Cohen's shot with 91 seconds left setting up the final heroics by Hamill and Gregory who finished the night with a game-high four goals and added five ground balls and a pair of caused turnovers in his number-one-star effort.
Hjelm scored three times and had the assist on Gregory's tying score, while picking up two ground balls. Hamill posted four caused turnovers, four ground balls and a goal into the score book. Back row teammate Grant Firestone chipped in with three caused turnovers and four ground ball pick-ups.
Banno added seven other saves, for a total of nine, to his key stops at the end of the fourth period and the one in the second OT. Magnani was strong in goal for the hosts finishing with 12 saves.
In the team totals, Haverford held a 44-35 edge in the ground balls column and registered 15 caused turnovers to just six by Ursinus.
The victory pulls the Fords back into the thick of the battle for a conference postseason tournament spot. They'll try to keep their momentum rolling Saturday afternoon when Franklin & Marshall College comes to town for a noontime game at Swan Field.