HAVERFORD, Pa. – A stretch of six unanswered goals allowed Haverford College to walk away with a 9-3 Centennial Conference men's lacrosse victory over visiting McDaniel College Saturday afternoon at chilly Swan Field.
With the temperatures reaching only into the high-30s, the No. 10 Fords (7-2, 2-1 CC) used a goal with 13 seconds remaining in the first period to spark the offense in the win over the Green Terror (3-5, 0-2).
Max Hjelm opened the day's scoring at the 12:39 mark of the first period but DJ Rickels of McDaniel responded with a tying goal four minutes later. Not until the final seconds of the period was either team able to muster up another marker.
The Fords had possession in the McDaniel third with 20 seconds remaining in the stanza. Head coach Colin Bathory called a timeout and had the right speech in his pocket as the team returned to the field and picked up the go-ahead goal from Phillip Valliant seven seconds after the timeout.
Valliant's goal sparked a six-goal run from the Fords that lasted into the third period. Nick Schoen then Hjelm followed Valliant's tally, then Zack Cohen and Schoen closed out the second period with two more scores that gave the Fords a 6-1 lead as the teams headed into halftime. Henry Milson, netting his first of the year, scored the only goal of the third to add to the cushion.
Haverford out shot the Green Terror 24-8 during the second and third periods out scoring the visitors 5-1 over those 30 minutes.
Both teams picked up two goals apiece in the fourth but the outcome had long been decided by then.
Hjelm, Schoen and Cohen each finished with two goals apiece to lead the Fords' offense and Rickels led McDaniel with two of the team's three scores.
Robert Breckinridge had another solid day at the face-off dot for the Fords winning 10 of 15 opportunities.
In the cages, Haverford's Joe Banno earned the win making nine saves on the day while the Green Terror's Christian Dallmus took the loss after registering 10 saves.
The nationally-ranked Fords continue their conference slate with a visit to No. 12 Dickinson College for a 3 p.m. top-25 match-up next Saturday afternoon.