2020 Season Preview

The Haverford College men's lacrosse team showed it can compete with the best teams in Division III a season ago with victories on the road against top 10 foes Dickinson and Ursinus. The 2020 Fords will seek more consistency as they look for a return to the Centennial Conference Tournament after qualifying during the 2018 season.

Haverford's graduated Class of 2019 featured 10 different players who appeared in at least 10 games last year, including five regular starters headlined by honorable mention All-American Ben Frost '19. Nevertheless, multiple Fords played a significant role in those victories as 12 returners played in at least 10 games last year. That group includes second-team All-Centennial Conference goalie Ethan Donlon and Haverford's leading scoring from a season ago in Sean Mowatt-Larssen. The 2020 season will be head Nick Taylor's second leading the Fords as 13 first-years will join his team.

Attack

Sean Mowatt-Larssen headlines the attacking unit after leading the Fords in goals (28) and points (36) during his rookie season. Starting all 14 games he played last year, Mowatt-Larssen registered multiple goals in nine different contests. His offensive output included scoring the game-winning goal against Ursinus and a five-goal effort against Gwynedd Mercy. Classmate Wyatt Feinberg also got four starts on his way to a five goal, three assist season.

Senior Noah Hollander is the most experienced attacker of the returning players as he has played in 30 career games, making five starts. He appeared in every game during his first two seasons with the Fords and will look for a similar impact this coming spring. Fellow senior Connor Braun will also have the opportunity for an increased role with a number of the team's point producers graduating from a year ago.

Newcomers on attack: Andrew Arth, Peter Christians, Ben Meyers

Midfield

One of the most experienced units on the team, the midfield will feature junior co-captain Anthony Vizzoni and classmate Brian Geffroy who have each played in 29 games during their first two seasons. A long pole in the midfield, Vizzoni was second on the team in both ground balls (44) and caused turnovers (9) in 2019. Geffroy made his impact on the attack as he has scored 24 career goals, including the game-winner in overtime against Kenyon and another four-goal effort versus Washington College in 2019. Sophomore Blake Brinster also made an instant impact in the attacking end with 11 starts and 10 goals during his rookie season while junior Ben Fujinaga added four goals from the midfield.

Long stick middies Jacob Shiff (sophomore) and Matt Culkin (junior) have both appeared in over 10 games throughout their careers while fellow middies Charlie Russ (senior) and Gray Pollock (sophomore) are also experienced options. Pollock collected 14 ground balls last season while Russ is the most experienced face-off man with 44 victories. Sophomores Nate Ruhl and Gabe Durso will handle the primary face-off duties for the Fords this year after backing up Zack Cohen '19 last year. Keegan Hoag and Jordany Baltazar will also look to take steps forward in their second year with the program.

Newcomers in midfield: Eric Dahlberg, Jared Heller, Drew Hoffman, Nate Rose, Spencer Sapir, Elijah Vega

Defense

The Fords' defense also returns a number of experience players as all six of those returning players have appeared in at least 15 contests. Senior co-captain Griffin Brooks is the most experienced of this unit with 40 career appearances during which he has scooped up 30 ground balls and caused 14 turnovers. Junior Colby Ferrigno started all 15 games on defense a season and led the team with 17 caused turnovers while also collecting 30 ground balls.

Co-captain Brendan Narko and fellow senior Gabe Moon have both appeared in 18 career games. Moon collected 21 ground balls and caused four turnovers while Narko has four GBs and two CTs. Junior Jonathan Frost missed most of last season but did start two of his three appearances to close the year and also has experience at face-off. Max Elliott is the lone returning sophomore from the unit, but he appeared in all 15 games a year ago, securing 17 ground balls and causing six turnovers.

Newcomers: Tommy Dandino, David Harris, Asher Porphy, Khalil Walker

Goalie

Junior Ethan Donlon is the incumbent after taking over the starting position midway through last year. He was named to the USILA National Team and the Week and the Centennial Conference Defensive Player of the Week after huge performances in the aforementioned top 10 victories. Donlon has made six career starts, all of which came last year, and has stopped over 54% of the shots he has faced to date. With a deep goaltending unit in recent history, senior Kyle Buseck and junior Joe Weisberg will move up the depth chart for a Haverford team that has one of the strongest traditions of top-notch goalies across Division III.

Schedule: Six teams ranked in the USILA Preseason Top 20 are on the Fords schedule, including defending national champion Cabrini which is the team's home and season opener. The always-challenging Centennial Conference schedule features four teams in the preseason national rankings, but Haverford will have the opportunity to host three of those ranked CC foes on Swan Field. Haverford's schedule also includes a trip to Colorado during the College's Spring Break where the team will take on Colorado College and Baldwin Wallace.