HAVERFORD, Pa. - The Haverford College men's lacrosse team (2-1) completed a dramatic comeback victory over Mary Washington (1-3) on Saturday afternoon at Swan Field, prevailing by a 15-14 final in non-conference action.
Sophomore face-off specialist Teddy Carlin had a major impact on that final scoreline, keeping his team in the contest with a program-record 25 face-off wins. Carlin's impressive total eclipses the 24 wins from Sebastian Mankowski in 2004 and was just the second time a Haverford player had gone above 20 wins in a single contest. Carlin also scooped nine ground balls to put an exclamation mark on an outstanding day at the X.
The midfield play of Blake Brinster was also key for the Haverford win, as he tallied a hat-trick while Sean Mowatt-Larssen continued his outstanding run to start the season, adding four goals and three assists to the ledger. Matt Richards and Andrew Arth also each added a pair of goals. Eric Dahlberg was seemingly everywhere on Saturday, with seven ground balls and a caused turnover.
In goal, Colby Freeman got the start making five saves in 36 minutes of work before Jacob Abraham came in for relief work and picked up his first career victory behind six saves in 23 minutes of action. A heroic save just before the final buzzer helped preserve the win for the Fords.
It was Mary Washington proving to be the aggressor in the early goings, sprinting out to a 9-5 lead and holding that sizable advantage into the opening moments of the third quarter. With Haverford forced to regroup facing the four-goal deficit, it was the play of Carlin at the X setting up offensive opportunities for Haverford and firing up the bench. Dahlberg and Richards lit the lamp within moments of each other to trim the advantage to two, and Brinster then found a feed from Richards and buried a shot on the power play opportunity to trim the lead to one. The Eagles answered as J.D. Nozemack found a goal, but Mowatt-Larssen then trimmed the lead back to just one.
Nozemack gave his side a two-goal cushion, but Mowatt-Larssen and Arth later tallied to even the score at 11-11 with 12:11 to play. A two-goal spurt from the visitors caused some anxiety for Haverford, but a calm scoring turn from Mowatt-Larssen served as a prelude to a 3-0 run to end the contest, with Gray Pollock, Arth, and Jonathan Moon all finding big time goals down the stretch.
Moon, who had previously been called upon for a nifty assist to Mowatt-Larsen with 8:05 remaining, found the starring role at the end as he fired an unassisted tally past Riley Green to give Haverford the late lead. Abraham then came up huge with a stop on the final Eagles possession to send the Fords to a win.
Nozemack had a big day for the visitors despite the loss, with three goals and four assists. Mary Washington was also paced by five ground balls from Sam Pugliese. A total of 10 different Haverford players scooped multiple ground balls in the contest.
Haverford now returns to action next Saturday, with a journey through the Empire State. Haverford travels to Skidmore (2 p.m.) before a Tuesday, March 8 afternoon matchup against Ithaca. That contest is slated for a 4 p.m. face-off.