Seniors help lead Fords over McDaniel on Sr. Day

Seniors help lead Fords over McDaniel on Sr. Day

HAVERFORD, Pa. – Senior Matt Gorski's first of a pair of goals on the day helped the Haverford College men's soccer team past visiting McDaniel College in a 3-1 Centennial Conference victory Saturday afternoon at Walton Field.

Gorski, fittingly on Senior Day for Haverford (9-6, 5-2 Centennial), gave the Fords a two-goal cushion on the Green Terror (5-9-1, 1-6) late in second half action after fellow senior Dan Garfing's header had provided the opening goal in the 64th minute.

On a set piece following a McDaniel foul near the top of their penalty box, the ball was passed back to Matt Johnson whose 40-yard service came down about 10 yards in front of the Green Terror goal mouth where Haverford's Brady Seitz made first contact. His header bounced down short of the goal but bounced up in front of Garfing who easily headed a shot into the back, right corner for the game's first goal.

Gorski pushed the lead to two with a singular effort in the 80th minute. After receiving the ball just inside the top, left corner of the penalty box, he split two McDaniel defenders and before Green Terror goalie Zach Nibbelink could cut off the angle, Gorski was able to launch a low shot off his right foot just inside the back post.

Gorski added a penalty kick goal -- setting a program career record with his fourth -- at the 84:01 mark, 24 seconds after McDaniel had cut into the lead with Kaden Phillips' goal off a through ball from teammate Mike McClain.

Nibbelink (3-5-1) took the loss after making six saves for the Green Terror. Haverford netminder Andriy Mshanetskyy (9-5) earned the win coming up with three saves.

Garfing and Gorski were two of five seniors honored in a brief pregame ceremony on the Fords' Senior Day. The duo plus Julien Calas, Trevor Barlowe and Charlie Michele are members of the first Haverford men's soccer team to record double-digits in wins (11, in 2011) since the 2000 squad. Last season's Haverford team became the first to qualify for the Centennial playoffs and the first to play for the conference championship. Including Saturday's victory, the Class of '13 has accumulated 34 wins which is the most by a graduating class in 10 years.

The afternoon's win also allows the Fords to keep pace in the Centennial race as the season winds down next week to its final week of the regular season. Haverford trails second-place Dickinson  (5-1-1 in the league) by a half game in the conference standings and leads fourth-place Johns Hopkins University (3-2-1) with the Blue Jays set to play a Saturday evening game against league-leader and 12th-ranked Swarthmore College (5-0-1).

The next outing for Haverford is Wednesday afternoon's Centennial match-up against visiting Ursinus College (1-6) followed by the season-ender at Swarthmore on Saturday night.