SWARTHMORE, Pa.—Swarthmore College Men's Lacrosse's bid for the Centennial Conference Tournament was denied in Saturday's virtual play-in game against the Haverford College Fords. Both teams entered the game with 3-4 records in Centennial play and the winner would earn the fourth and final spot in the conference tournament.
The Garnet led 5-3 in the third quarter, but Haverford caught up and took the defensive battle 7-6. This marked the third consecutive season that the conference's final playoff spot was decided by a one-goal Haverford/Swarthmore game on the final day of the season.
Senior Cam Marsh led Swarthmore with two goals and finished with 20 goals on the season. For his career, Marsh collected 107 goals and 91 assists for 198 total points. Those numbers are good for the fourth-most goals in program history, the third-most assists and the third-most points.
Freshman Mason Evarts scored twice, and Zander Levitz and Austin Chang also scored. Chang led Swarthmore with 33 goals this season.
After a man-up goal by Marsh with 3:15 left in the second, Swarthmore held onto a 3-1 lead. The Fords pegged the Garnet for a goal with a minute left in the half as the lowest combined scoring game of the season entered halftime at 3-2.
Marsh went five-hole on a defender to put Swarthmore up 4-2 early in the third and Evarts added his second at the 9:23 mark. However, the Garnet went cold and didn't score again until 7:39 in the fourth quarter. Haverford, in the meantime, had scored four in a row. Chang's goal at 7:39 evened the count at 6-6, but Haverford netted the go-ahead goal with just 1:37 left.
Swarthmore's Ryan Izquierdo won the following faceoff and looked for opportunities to even the score, but none could be found. Marsh made a diving attempt at the equalizer in the game's final seconds but was called for a crease violation which resulted in a turnover.
Izquierdo went 12-for-17 in faceoff attempts and finished the year winning 59.6 percent of his attempts (146-for-245).
Freshman goalie Frankie Dillon, in just his fifth start, denied 10 Haverford shots on goal. Dillon appeared in eight games this year and made 75 saves while maintaining a goals against average of 8.17.
Swarthmore honored seniors John Calia, Sam Sokota, Matt Johnson, Alex Mandel, Jimmy Eberle and Cam Marsh prior to Saturday's game. The senior class won 37 games together and made the program's first two runs in the Centennial postseason.
