HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College men's lacrosse team found itself locked in a back-and-forth battle all afternoon against visiting Kenyon College on Saturday. However, a Brian Geffroy goal with 2:31 remaining in the second overtime period lifted the Fords to their first victory of the 2019 campaign, a 10-9 triumph. That goal came after the Fords tied the game on a tally from Ben Frost with just 12 seconds remaining in regulation time.

Seven different players found the back of the cage for the Fords in the victory while Dylan Slack stopped 16 of the Lords' 25 shots on goal throughout the afternoon. The largest lead for either team was just a two-goal margin that the Fords held on two separate occasions during the first half. Kenyon struck just 1:27 into the contest, but the Fords rattled off three straight to take their first two-goal advantage. Rob McLallen got the Fords' attack jump-started with a man-up goal at the 7:48 mark of the opening period. Just under a minute later, Garret Trucksess netted an unassisted tally while Sean Mowatt-Larssen scored at the 5:19 mark to give Haverford a 3-1 lead with a trio of goals just 2:29 apart.

Kenyon did answer back with a goal just 25 seconds before the end of the first quarter, but McLallen's fifth goal of the season stretched Haverford's lead back to two goals just 1:27 into the second quarter. The visiting Lords made their largest run of the afternoon with three unanswered goals to close the final 7:27 of the opening half, carrying a 5-4 lead into the break.

Ben Fujinaga's first career goal snapped that stretch and tied the game at five just under five minutes into the third period. After setting up a goal during the first half, DeLeo and Mowatt-Larssen reversed roles from their earlier connection just 47 seconds after the Fords had tied the game. DeLeo's goal was the sixth of his senior campaign. The two sides then traded goals into the fourth quarter with a little bit of foreshadowing as Frost and Geffroy began to find their shot late in the contest. Those two needed to answer the call late as Kenyon scored with 5:05 and 1:49 remaining in the fourth quarter to claim a 9-8 advantage.

Needing the possession back, Haverford got a huge face-off win as Anthony Vizzoni scooped the ground ball off the restart. The Fords had three shots early in that possession where they were searching for the tie, but Kenyon's goalie was up to the task on the middle attempt, while the first and third shots traveled wide of cage. The Fords called for a timeout after that last shot missed wide. That break gave the hosts just enough time to draw up the game-tying goal as Haverford went back to Frost who made his third shot of the possession count off of an assist from McLallen.

After knotting the game at nine, Haverford survived a stressful first overtime period which saw Kenyon take all six shots of the four-minute session. Slack came up with a huge save with five seconds to go, forcing the second extra session. The Fords also got a lucky bounce off the post very early in that period. Hitting the post seemed to be a theme of the day as the Lords did so six times, while Haverford found the post twice. Each team also hit the crossbar once.

Haverford flipped the script in the second overtime as Gabe Moon collected another one of Zack Cohen's face-off victories. Haverford had the only shots of that period, but saw a shot travel high and another miss wide during the first minute of the overtime. However, the third time was once again the charm as Mowatt-Larssen found Geffroy in front of cage for the game-winning tally at the 2:31 mark. Geffroy's goal was his third this season.

Slack anchored a strong defensive effort as Kenyon committed 25 turnovers over the 65 minutes-plus of game action. Eleven of those efforts were a direct result of the Haverford defense as Frost, Vizzoni, and Jake Ephron each recorded a pair of caused turnovers. Trucksess and Slack each gathered a team-high four ground balls.

With the first win of the season under its belts, men's lacrosse will be back in action next Saturday, March 16 against Stevens at 1 p.m. on Swan Field.