Bears Stop Swarthmore
COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. -- Swarthmore started a rainy Wednesday night in suburban Philadelphia with a pair of goals but the Ursinus Bears offense got on track once the rain subsided, handing the Garnet their first loss of the season, 13-3, in the first Centennial Conference action for both men's lacrosse squads.
Senior midfielder Dan Mangin (Willow Grove, Pa. / Archbishop Wood) and sophomore attack Pat Nagle (Stony Brook, N.Y. / Ward Meville) led Ursinus (3-3 overall, 1-0 CC) with three goals apiece.
Garnet senior goalie Frank Mazzucco (Redding, Conn. / Joel Barlow) set the tone early, stoning an early Bears’ one-timer with a kick save. The senior would make 15 more saves, plus five ground balls, but was unable to keep the Bears at bay.
Swarthmore got on the board first. Junior midfielder Todd Friedman (Miami, Fla. / Miami-Palmetto) isolated himself on the left wing, took two around his defender and blistered a left-handed rocket over the shoulder of the Ursinus goalie at 12:10. A nice pass from sophomore attack Gavin Musynske (Floral Park, N.Y. / Floral Park) to junior Stelios Wilson (Moorestown, N.J. / Moorestown) gave the Garnet a two-goal lead.
Ursinus turned the tables on Swarthmore, as senior attack Justin Reinke (Setaukat, N.Y. / Ward Melville) scored off a feed from long-stick middie Cory Greco (Massapequa, N.Y. / Massapequa) just at the end of Garnet man-up situation. The Bears evened things up with 3:26 left in the period as Dane Mangin bounced a low shot into the Garnet goal for his team-leading 11th score of the season.
The Bears took a 3-2 lead into the second period after Nagle scooped up a rebound and dumped it into Swarthmore’s cage with 31 seconds left in the period.
Swarthmore junior defender Drew Bonessa brought the ball over and spotted sophomore Tyler Bradshaw (Marietta, Ga. / Lassiter) alone in front of the cage. Bradshaw calmly turned and snapped the ball into the net for his second goal of the season at 9:11.
The Bears’ extra-man crew put in a goal as Farris notched his second goal of the period at 1:43 off a pass from freshman midfielder Jason Smith (Stony Brook, N.Y. / Ward Meville), sending the home team into intermission with a 5-3 lead.
The second half began with a Swarthmore penalty on the face-off and the Bears converted with a Mangin goal at 13:58 for a 6-3 lead. Mangin, All-Centennial in 2006, picked up an unassisted goal two minutes later.
Ursinus picked up two more goals in the fourth, including a score by long-stick middie Derrick Mangin (Willow Grove, Pa. / Archbishop Wood) off a feed from the Bears’ goalie, Tony Aquilano (Abbington, Pa. / Abbington). Mangin caused a Garnet turnover and found junior attack Jason Patterson (West Chester, Pa. / Unionville) on the doorstep for Ursinus’ ninth score at 12:09. The Bears would total six goals in the fourth, holding true to their late-game mentality (35 goals in fourth period this season).
The Garnet return to Clothier Field this weekend, hosting Dickinson College in a 1:00 p.m. Centennial contest. The Red Devils recently dropped out of the top-20, getting as high as #17 in the USILA poll.