HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College men's soccer team took over the top spot on the Centennial Conference table with a 2-0 shutout win against Dickinson on Saturday. Celebrating Senior Day prior to the match, the Fords (9-4, 6-1 CC) took a huge step towards hosting the Centennial Conference Tournament for the third time in four seasons with the victory over the Red Devils (10-4-2, 5-2-1 CC).
Haverford scored a goal during each half to secure the Centennial win. The Fords' first tally of the afternoon came on a penalty kick as Dickinson was whistled for a handball in the box. Nick Jannelli calmly delivered that PK goal during the 37th minute of play. Jannelli reclaimed the conference lead in points with his three-point effort on Saturday. He now has 24 points this season. The junior's penalty kick was the seventh successful attempt of his career and gave him nine goals this season.
The Fords' second goal came in the 64th minute of play when senior Max Krieg found the back of the net for the third time in his career. He headed home a direct kick off the foot of Jannelli to make the score 2-0.
Even with the final score in its favor, Haverford had a couple of unfortunate bounces as it found two crossbars and drilled the post once. Noah Schwab was the first to find the crossbar as he did so during the 25th minute of play when the match was still scoreless. After the Fords had taken a 2-0 lead, Sykes Cargile found the post on a bicycle kick during the 69th minute, while Jannelli's bid at a second goal came off the crossbar with just over 12 minutes to play.
Dickinson finished the match with a slight 15-13 edge in shots, while the Fords held a 5-4 advantage in corner kick attempts. Active in the offensive third all afternoon, Jannelli finished with a match-high eight shots. Peter Baroff also added two shots to the Haverford offense. With his latest offensive showcase, Jannelli now has 30 career goals to move into sole possession of 14th place in the school record books. Jannelli's 73 career points move him in 15th on the all-time list. The 12th game-winning goal of his career, and fifth this season, ties him with Evan Jones '49, Rich Billings '00, and Will Corkery '17 for all-time program lead.
Michael Iacono got the start in goal and stopped each of Dickinson's eight shots on target. The junior keeper now has four shutouts this season with another combined effort earlier this week. He lowered his career GAA to 1.10, a top 10 mark in school history.
Men's soccer will wrap up the regular season next week with three matches in the span of just five days. The Fords begin the week with a non-conference home match against Stevenson that is set for 3:30 p.m. Two days later, the Fords will have the chance to officially clinch home-field advantage for the conference tournament with a match against Muhlenberg on Thursday at 3:30 p.m. The regular season concludes next Saturday at rival Swarthmore with that showdown set to get underway at 4 p.m.