CARLISLE, Pa. – The Haverford College men's lacrosse team outscored No. 10 Dickinson by a 10-3 margin over the final 42 minutes Saturday to upset the nationally-ranked Red Devils. The Fords' win was their first against a nationally-ranked team since the 2017 season when they defeated Ursinus. The victory was Haverford's highest ranked win since the Fords defeated then-No. 7 Dickinson during the second round of the NCAA Tournament as a part of the 2010 Centennial Conference Championship season.
Three different Fords recorded hat tricks on the day as Garret Trucksess, Stephen DeLeo, and Sean Mowatt-Larssen all found the back of the cage three times. Blake Brinster also scored twice while Rob McLallen scored the game's first goal and handed out a team-best three assists on the afternoon. Ethan Donlon was also stellar in net during his second career start. He stopped 23 of the 32 shots on goal that he faced for a 71.9 save percentage.
Despite the final score, it was host Dickinson that got off to the red-hot start at the Red Devils led 6-2 early in the second quarter. Goals from McLallen and Mowatt-Larssen accounted for the Fords' first two goals of the contest. Haverford begin to make its run in the second quarter with some nifty passing as each of Haverford's four goals in the second were assisted. Haverford finished the contest with assists on nine of the team's 12 goals. The Fords got three straight tallies from Mowatt-Larssen, Brinster, and DeLeo to start the run. Mowatt-Larssen also assisted on the final goal during that run and finished his afternoon with five points.
Dickinson broke the run with a goal just 2:14 before the half, but Trucksess answered that tally to set the score at 7-6 Dickinson as the teams headed into halftime. Donlon made 14 of his 23 saves during the opening half, seven in each quarter, as the hosts held a 27-20 advantage in shots after the first half.
Following a tremendous amount of work in the second quarter, Mowatt-Larssen took full advantage of the Fords' only man-up chance of the entire afternoon and tied the game at seven with 11:47 to play in the third. That goal gave Mowatt-Larssen a hat trick with his team-leading 20th goal of the season and came off the feed of McLallen's final helper as the senior captain now has a team-best 18 assists on the season.
Trucksess' goal at 9:02 in the third put the Fords up 8-7 before Dickinson knotted the game with 4:20 left in the quarter. However, Haverford used its third three-goal run of the game to finally create some separation. DeLeo scored two of his three goals during that span as his final tally came with 7:26 remaining in the fourth quarter to cap his hat trick and give him 16 goals on the year. Trucksess secured his hat trick with a goal that came with just one second on the clock during the third quarter as he has now scored 13 goals in eight games during his senior campaign.
DeLeo's final goal put the Fords up 11-8 with 7:26 to play and the defense would hold until Dickinson brought the game to 11-9 with just 37 seconds remaining in regulation. Even though Dickinson was already a long shot for victory in that remaining time, Brinster left no doubt as he scored the eighth goal of his rookie campaign with 20 seconds remaining to register the 12-9 final score.
Donlon made an additional nine saves in the cage during the second half to out-duel All-Centennial Conference goalie Cole Pellicano who finished with nine saves on 23 shots. Donlon was additionally helped by a Haverford defense that caused nine of Dickinson's 18 turnovers. Colby Ferrigno, Zack Cohen, and Brian Geffroy each registered a pair of takeaways. Cohen also won nine face-offs and finished tied for the team lead with four ground balls. Additionally, Anthony Vizzoni scooped up four ground balls to tie for the team lead.
With a win that puts the Fords right back in the thick of the Centennial Conference playoff race, two more big games await the team this week. On Wednesday, Haverford will make its trip to Washington College and battle the Shoremen under the lights in a 7 p.m. start. Haverford returns home next Saturday for a 12 p.m. start against No. 8 Gettysburg. Reversing the traditional order, that game will be played before the women's team battles the Bullets at 3 p.m.