CHESTER, Pa. - The Haverford College Men's Lacrosse team (2-1) took its second consecutive victory, taking down the Widener Pride (0-3) by a final of 16-12 on an unusually warm and rainy February evening at Elizabeth J. Hirschmann Field at Leslie C. Quick Jr. Stadium.
After finding the back of the net four times in Haverford' last contest, Reid Tietjen continued his hot start to the 2024 season, pacing the Fords in goals with four against the Pride. His teammate Seamus McNally truly had a breakout game in Chester, finding the back of the net three times and handing out a season-high five assists. Goalkeeper Jacob Abraham picked up his second win of the season, stopping 10 shots between the sticks.
The Scarlet and Black scooped up 45 ground balls, with Teddy Carlin scooping up a season-high 12 ground balls to pace the effort at the faceoff X. Faceoffs proved to be the key to victory for the Fords, as Haverford won 22-of-32 faceoffs, with Carlin winning 15 and Drew Buck coming away with 10 wins.
Philip Passalaqua started off the scoring in quarter number one, only to be followed up by a goal from Ronan West 19 seconds later, as Haverford went quickly up 2-0 with 7:20 remaining. Widener found the back of the net twice within a two-minute span to even the game at 2-2 with three minutes to go in the opening quarter. Tietjen was able to sneak in a man-down goal with 39 seconds left to take the Fords into the second quarter up 3-2.
The second quarter turned out to be the decisive quarter of the game, as Haverford rattled off a substantial 9-0 scoring run to take a commanding 10-goal lead, 12-2, with 47 seconds left in the first-half. Four different members of the Scarlet and Black scored twice in the run, as two goals from Evan Wolpert, Tietjen, Tyler Vendetti, and McNally all bolstered the Fords' sizable lead. Following the first goal of the season from D'Andre Chaney, a strike that gave Haverford a 12-2 advantage, a late Pride goal from Bryant Maits sent both teams into halftime with the visitors leading the hosts 12-3.
Liam Drake started the third stanza off with a goal, after firing a shot past Abraham to pull Widener within eight goals at 12-4. The goal from Drake sent a wake-up call to the Scarlet and Black, as the Fords went on a 3-0 scoring run with goals from Jonathan Moon, Tietjen, and McNally in the stretch to go up by double digits, 15-4, with 9:43 left in the third quarter.
The Pride answered with a 5-0 scoring run of their own to close out the third quarter after goals from Maits, Wesley Sporer, Matt Buckley, Nicholas Knepp (man-down goal), and Matthew Marino pulled Widener to within just six at 15-9.
The Pride continued their big momentum to kick off the final quarter, as Matt Horgan ripped in a goal to bring his squad back within five at 15-10, with 13:44 remaining in the contest. With six minutes remaining, Vendetti found back netting to snap the six-unanswered goal stretch from the hosts, to give Haverford a 16-10 edge over Widener. The Pride ended up scoring two more goals in the final six minutes, but it was too little, too late, for the Pride, as the Fords left Chester with a 16-12 victory.
Next up for the Fords is a business trip down to Virginia, as Haverford will take on Randolph-Macon on the turf of Day Field in Ashland, Va. on Sunday, March 3, at noon.