HAVERFORD, Pa. – A late goal from Henry Lanier broke a tie and pushed Haverford College's men's lacrosse team to a 9-8 Centennial Conference victory over visiting Franklin & Marshall College on Saturday afternoon at Swan Field.
Circling from behind the net around F&M goalkeeper Cameron Setian's left side, Lanier fought off a defensive jam and launched a shot over Setian's shoulder with 3:22 to play to break an 8-8 tie and eventually give the Fords (4-7, 2-3 CC) their second conference victory of the year. F&M slips to 8-4 overall and 3-3 within the league after Saturday's loss.
The Fords never trailed through the opening two periods and carried a 4-3 lead into the halftime break.
Christian Clay opened the scoring for Haverford but the Dips answered with a tying goal less than a minute later. The teams traded goals over the next 13 minutes but, tied at 2-2, Haverford picked up consecutive goals by Jack Bodine and Zack Cohen to forge a two-goal cushion. An F&M goal seven seconds after Cohen's tally provided the halftime score.
Henry Millson pushed the Haverford lead back to two with an early third-period goal but F&M bounced back with a goal from Billy Kempner just 11 seconds later.
Kempner's marker was the first of three straight by the Diplomats who nabbed their first lead of the game, 6-5, at the 8:27 mark of the third.
This time it was the Fords playing catch-up as Bodine notched his second of the game to tie the score but F&M pushed ahead with a James Wenk goal. A little more than a minute later, Jake Maldonado scored his second of the day to pull Haverford even again, but F&M's A.J. Reichert wrested the lead back for the visitors in the first minute of the fourth period with his second of the game.
The game then rolled through its second-longest scoreless stretch, a little longer than nine minutes, before Haverford's Phillip Valliant would make some noise scoring on a man-up opportunity for his 19th goal of the season to pull the Fords even at 8-8 with 5:01 remaining in the game.
The game-winning play started in the Fords' defensive zone where Jordan Hitchcock caused a turnover and snared the ground ball at the 4:43 mark. The successful clearing attempt eventually led to the ball finding its way into Lanier's netting and the senior finished off the play with his sixth goal of the year for a new single-season best.
Lanier, scoring on his only shot of the game, and Hitchcock, who registered a pair of caused turnovers and three ground ball pickups, were presented with game balls from the team.
Senior goalie Joe Banno was another star for the Fords as he accounted for 13 saves in the game including four in the final period.
Haverford will try to extend a two-game winning streak with its next outing, a Wednesday night conference match-up at Swan against visiting Ursinus College (5-7, 1-4).