HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College men's lacrosse had a 7-6 lead against No. 10 Franklin & Marshall midway through the third quarter trailed by just one heading into the fourth quarter before the Diplomats pulled away late in a 13-9 victory.
Isaac Krier, who scored the go-ahead goal in the third quarter, recorded four goals and assisted on another to pace Haverford's attack on Saturday. Ben Frost also tallied a hat trick with three goals and an assist.
Haverford held a 2-1 lead after the first quarter following goals late in the period forom Krier and Stephen DeLeo. Krier scored an unassisted goal with 1:25 in the first quarter to knot the game at one. The Fords were 2-for-4 on their man-up chances Saturday and got their first conversion when Krier found DeLeo with just six seconds remaining in the first.
Franklin & Marshall tied the game on several occasions in the second and third quarters, but did not lead the rest of the half. Krier scored with 4:09 remaining in the half to put his team back in front by a 3-2 score, but the Diplomats tied the game with 1:33 to go before the half. The Fords took the lead back to start the third quarter as Rob McLallen found Frost for his first goal of the afternoon to make it 4-3 just 1:17 into the third quarter. However, the Diplomats scored three successive goals to take a 6-4 lead with 11:17 left in the period.
Haverford coach Brendan Dawson called for a timeout after that third goal and his team immediately responded. The Fords won the ensuing face-off and just 17 seconds later McLallen scored his sixth goal of the season. McLallen finished his afternoon with three offensive points. With the shot clock on just over four minutes later, Frost snipped his second goal of the game to tie the contest at six-all with 7:38 to play. The Fords capped a 3-0 run of their own as Krier tallied the second man-advantage goal of the game with 4:28 remaining in the third, but two straight goals from Franklin & Marshall gave the visitors an 8-7 leading heading to the final 15 minutes.
The Diplomats' run reached 4-0 as they scored the first two goals of the fourth quarter. Isaac Krier's 14th goal of the season stopped that momentum for the time being as Frost found him cutting to the cage with 9:50 showing on the scoreboard. F&M scored two more before Frost capped his hat trick with goal number 12 of the season with 3:49 left in regulation to make the score 12-9. The only offense the rest of the contest belonged to the visitors as they came away with the 13-9 victory.
The two sides were even in shots heading into the final period before F&M used a 14-6 shots advantage over the final 15 minutes to finish with a 40-32 total shot advantage. Dylan Slack made 14 saves in goal for Haverford while his counterpart made 10 stops. Ground balls slightly favored the Diplomats with a 30-28 advantage in that category. Max Ellis and DeLeo each collected four ground balls. Jake Ephron, Ellis, and DeLeo each caused two turnovers for Haverford.
Men's lacrosse will now have a full week of preparation before No. 9 Dickinson comes to Swan Field for a 3 p.m. face-off. That contest will once again be part of a doubleheader with the women's team.