HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College men's soccer team suffered its first loss of the season against Centre in the opening game of the Jimmy Mills Classic on Saturday afternoon by a 2-0 final. With these two schools meeting for the first time, the Colonels (2-0-1) got the early jump with a penalty kick goal just 2:26 into the contest before adding an insurance goal with just over 11 minutes left in regulation time to take down the Fords (1-1).
Saturday's opening matchup in the Jimmy Mills Classic pitted a pair of NCAA Tournament teams from a season ago against each other. In the second match of the annual classic, TCNJ defeated Hampden-Sydney by a 1-0 score. Sunday's action at the Jimmy Mills Classic will see TCNJ play Centre at 12 p.m. noon while Haverford will take on Hampden-Sydney in the 2:30 p.m. match.
Centre's first goal came after a controversial early call in the box as the Fords were whistled for a tackle inside of the 18. Returning All-American Alexander Garuba made the most of that opportunity for the visitors as he knocked home the early goal one season after ranking just outside of the top 10 in all of Division III in total goals.
The Colonels nearly made it 2-0 in the early minutes, but a backline save from Will Klein denied Centre's Dylan Barth the contest's second goal for the time being. Haverford had a strong chance to level the match right before halftime as Sykes Cargile and Centre's Michael Vogt found themselves in a race for possession inside the 18 with the goalie out of position. With nearly a simultaneous touch, the ball ricocheted out of bounds for a corner kick attempt.
Haverford and Centre both finished Saturday's match with five corner attempts each. The Colonels were finally able to take advantage of those chances on their last such attempt of the afternoon as Garuba found Kaeman Filiatrault inside the 18 for the header into the back of the net.
Today's result brought Haverford's nine-match winning on Walton Field to a close. The Fords are now 39-5-3 on their home pitch since the start of the 2015 season. The Colonels had a 16-12 advantage in the final shot tally with Cargile and Nick Jannelli leading Haverford's efforts with five and three attempts, respectively. Michael Iacono made a pair of saves for the Fords as he played the entire 90 minutes in goal while his counterpart, Tate Johnson, made four saves for the Colonels.