GALLOWAY, N.J. – The Haverford College men's lacrosse team reversed a defeat from a season ago on Wednesday night. The result came as the Fords (2-1) topped previously unbeaten Stockton (2-1) by an 11-9 final.
Haverford got three goals from Ben Frost as the sophomore tallied his first career hat trick. Kevin Goshorn and Rob McLallen recorded the second and third multi-goal games of their respective careers to help pace the attack while four other players added a single goal. Dylan Slack made a game and career-high 11 saves in the crease to preserve the victory. Zack Aho led the Ospreys' attack with three goals.
Playing under the lights for the first time this season, the Fords again found themselves in a back-and-forth battle. Haverford took a quick 2-0 lead with the first tallies of the night from McLallen and Frost. Those goals came just 1:51 after the opening faceoff. However, the first of Stockton's 3-0 runs ensued as it took a 3-2 advantage. However, Isaac Krier found Frost with 4:34 remaining in the opening quarter to tie the game at three after 15 minutes.
Stockton only won one of the four quarters, but it was a 4-2 advantage in the second that had the Ospreys up 7-4. After Stockton took a 4-3 lead, McLallen found the back of the net for the second time as his goal came following heavy pressure with four shots in a span of 48 seconds against the Stockton defense. Noah Quinn's first goal of the season cut the deficit to 7-5 in favor of the hosts heading to the break.
Coming out of the halftime break, Haverford shut down the Ospreys in third quarter and never trailed for the rest of the night. Frost got his hat trick just under three minutes into the third period. The Fords were still pressing for the game-tying goal midway through the period but got their best chance when the hosts were called for slashing. Just eight seconds into the man-up chance, Patrick Girard converted to tie the score at seven. Charlie Russ won the ensuing faceoff for the Fords and just 1:29 after tying the game, Goshorn gave his side an 8-7 lead.
For good measure, the Fords used quick transition to take a 9-7 lead into the final 15 minutes. Slack came up with a big save with 40 seconds remaining in the third and PJ Jackson was able to pick up the ground ball. The Fords sent a shot wide early in the possession, but Stephen DeLeo scored with just one second remaining in the quarter as Goshorn was credited with the assist to seemingly give the Fords all the momentum.
Early in the fourth quarter, Stockton blitzed the Haverford defense with a bevy of shots that resulted in two goals to knot the game at nine-all. However, Slack was up to the test for the remainder of the night as he stopped Stockton's final four shots on goal. In that span of seven-plus minutes, the Fords got goals from Jack Sollee and Goshorn to lock down the win.
Sollee's goal was set up by Frost as he finished with four points on the night. Goshorn's final tally came with just a minute to play in unassisted fashion. Down 11-9, Stockton won the next faceoff but was quickly forced into turning the possession over by Jake Ephron.
Charlie Russ handled each of the face offs on Wednesday night and won nine of those attempts. PJ Jackson led the defense with six ground ball pickups and tied with Ephron for the team lead with a pair of caused turnovers.
Men's lacrosse will be back on the road this Saturday as it travels to Randolph-Macon. That contest is scheduled to get underway at 1 p.m.