CHESTERTOWN, Md. – A season ago, the Haverford College men's lacrosse team used a big home win against Washington College to help propel them into the Centennial Conference playoffs. On Wednesday night, the Shoremen got their revenge with a 16-12 victory on their own home turf. However, the Fords did not go down without a fight as they trailed 14-8 and cut the lead down to 15-12 before host WAC escaped with the win.
Brian Geffroy had a career night for the Fords as he scored four goals for his first career hat trick. Ben Frost and Sean Mowatt-Larssen also scored a pair of goals while Rob McLallen matched his career high with four assists. Casey Grieves led the Shoremen with four goals and two assists while three others players recorded hat tricks for the hosts.
Haverford grabbed the early lead when Stephen DeLeo tallied an unassisted goal just under three minutes into the game. Frost and Geffroy later scored just 41 seconds apart to give Haverford a 3-2 advantage before Washington College ran off three straight goals and held a 5-3 lead after 15 minutes.
First-years Mowatt-Larssen and Blake Brinster came back to knot the game at five-all less than halfway through the second quarter. Both of those goals were assisted by McLallen, but four straight WAC goals put the Shoremen up 9-5. Frost scored his 21st goal of the season with just 43 seconds remaining in the opening half as McLallen set up each of Haverford's second period tallies to make the score 9-6 after 30 minutes.
Haverford finished the night 4-for-5 on man-up chances as the Fords capitalized again just 24 seconds into the third quarter when Mowatt-Larssen scored his team-leading 22nd goal. With the Fords trailing 9-7, Washington College began to create some distance on the scoreboard for the first time all night with five of the next six goals. Only Geffroy's snipe on a feed from Ben Fujinaga broke up that second half stretch.
When that run ended, Haverford was trailing 14-8 and had just 9:25 remaining in regulation. Seemingly unfazed, Haverford got goals from Geffroy and Garret Trucksess to make the score 14-10 with over seven minutes still on the clock. McLallen's pass to Trucksess for the Fords' third man-up goal of the night gave him a team-leading 22 assists and 31 points this season. Ryan Tetro was credited with the helper on Geffroy's third goal.
The Shoremen briefly broke Haverford's momentum but Geffroy and Wyatt Feinberg scored with 3:51 and 2:01 left in regulation as the Fords stayed within striking distance. Geffroy now has 10 goals this season after his career night. Trailing by just three, 15-12, with two minutes remaining, Washington College won the ensuing face-off and eventually scored as the Fords brought goalie Ethan Donlon out of the crease to double team the ball in hopes of creating a turnover.
Donlon, the reigning Centennial Conference Defensive Player of the Week, made 14 saves on Wednesday night. Haverford finished the game in a statistical deadlock for shots during the first, third, and fourth quarters. The Shoremen held a 20-8 advantage in shots during the second quarter, but eight saves from Donlon kept his side in the contest as both goalies finished with 14 saves.
Haverford won the ground ball battle with a 38-36 advantage. Zack Cohen went 16-for-29 (55.2%) from the face-off X and tied with Geffroy for the team lead of five ground balls. Twelve different players scooped up multiple ground balls for the Fords, including Jacob Shiff who added two caused turnovers.
Needing wins to get back to the playoffs for the second straight season, the Fords will return home for two of their final three games during the regular season. Each of those contests will take place on the three final Saturdays of April. Up first will be a 12 p.m. start with No. 8 Gettysburg this Saturday, April 13 on Swan Field.