ST. DAVIDS, Pa. – The Haverford College men's lacrosse team outscored Eastern by an 8-3 margin over the final three quarters to come away with a 10-6 win on the road Saturday. The win marked the first victory of the 2018 campaign for the Fords (1-1) as they have now won two straight in the series against the Eagles.
Stephen DeLeo led Haverford's attack with three goals for his second career hat trick. Isaac Krier added two goals and an assist for his second straight three-point contest to start the year while Rob McLallen also had a multi-point game with a goal and an assist. Jack Sollee, Ryan Tetro, Garret Trucksess, and Patrick Girard also scored the win. Dylan Slack picked up the win in goal, stopping nine of the 15 shots on goal he faced.
The host Eagles held the better of the face off X early on by winning five of the first six draws. With that possession advantage, Eastern held a slight 7-4 edge in shots which translated into a 3-2 advantage on the scoreboard after 15 minutes. DeLeo had both of Haverford's goals in the opening quarter with assists coming from Krier and McLallen. His second tally seemingly gave the Fords momentum as he scored with just one-tenth of a second remaining in the first.
After withstanding that opening period charge, Haverford started to gain the upper hand in all facets. Charlie Russ gave the Fords plenty of opportunities as he won nine of the contest's final 13 face offs. That included three straight wins on two separate occasions, the first of which helped Haverford hold a 4-1 second period scoring advantage. Trucksess opened the second quarter scoring just under two minutes in, while Krier gave Haverford its first lead of the day with 10:52 to play before the half as he tallied his first goal with the shot clock winding down.
Eastern tied the game with 7:33 to play in the second, but the Fords came back just 1:02 later with Krier's second goal in less than five minutes to reclaim the lead. Haverford would not trail again the rest of the day as Girard scored his third goal of the season with just over three minutes remaining before the half.
Looking for a second half rally, the Eagles started strong with a 10-5 advantage in third quarter shots. Nevertheless, Slack made six of his nine saves in that period, conceding just two goals during that time. Eastern did get within a single goal, but less than two minutes later DeLeo capped his hat trick with an unassisted goal to make the score 7-5. Sollee's first goal of the season off a feed from Noah Hollander then pushed the Fords' lead to three goals for the first time all day with 7:49 to play in the quarter.
After the hosts scored with 2:20 left in the third period, Haverford did not concede another goal for the remaining time. McLallen tallied his first goal of the season with 27 seconds left in the third, while Tetro's goal with 2:11 remaining in regulation was the only scoring in the final quarter.
Eastern did end up with slight advantages in shots (28-27) and ground balls (26-23), while Haverford successfully cleared its zone the same amount in two fewer chances. On the strength of his face off wins, Russ led the team with five ground balls, while Chandler Todd and Slack each collected three on the day. Todd also forced three of Haverford's nine caused turnovers.
Men's lacrosse will be back at home this coming Wednesday for its first game under the lights this season against Stockton. That contest is set to get underway at 7 p.m. Those teams have split the last two meetings since resuming the series. Haverford came away with an 11-9 victory on the road last spring.