Garnet Drops Heartbreaker to McDaniel
Brad Baer scored his second goal of the game with 14 seconds remaining to give McDaniel (4-5, 1-3) a 9-8 Centennial Conference victory over Swarthmore (4-4, 1-2) on Clothier Fields this afternoon.
The game was a see-saw battle that featured six ties and four lead changes. McDaniel jumped out in front as Steve Hoffman scored the first of four goals on the day off a Cory Nellissen assist at 11:18 of the first. Jeff Donlea '05 tied the game on a Ryan McKenna '07 feed at 7:00. The Green Terror countered quickly as Kolyn Kirby scored his team-leading 24th goal of the season just 37 seconds later. Tom Coughlin '05 tied the game at 2-2 with 5:26 remaining and Jay Charles '07 ripped a shot past Terror keeper Chad Schell just before the horn sounded ending the first quarter to give the Tide a 3-2 lead.
Kirby added his second goal of the game at 13:04 to tie the game at 3-3 and a Matthew Buschman goal at 7:40 reclaimed the lead for the Terror. The Garnet continued to put pressure on Schell as the offense held a 14-5 shot advantage in the quarter but managed to score only one goal when Gavin Nurick '07 tickled the twine with 3:10 remaining to send the squads into the break deadlocked at 4-4.
The Garnet grabbed the lead again when McKenna scored off a Coughlin feed at 12:48. Hoffman struck again when he won the draw and scored just 11 seconds later to even the game at 5-5 and Baer made it 6-5 when he scored unassisted at 11:22. The duo then combined to give McDaniel a 7-5 lead when Hoffman scored off a Baer feed at 8:16. Jeff Donlea '05 stopped the bleeding when he added a goal off a Coughlin feed at 6:14 to make it a 7-6 game. Hoffman then scored his fourth of the game just 45 seconds later to give McDaniel a 8-6 lead after three quarters.
Tim Chryssikos '05 cut the lead to one when he scored his team leading 20th goal of the season at 9:25 and Coughlin tied the game on a man-up goal with 6:18 remaining. Coughlin received a Chryssikos pass on the crease just left of Schell and deposited the ball behind his back into the upper left corner for one of the prettiest goals of the season (pictured above).
From there, the Garnet had several chances to take a lead but Schell was equal to the test making a big save with less than a minute to go. For the game he recorded 23 saves and the Garnet held a 57-19 shot advantage. Frank Mazzucco '08 recorded five saves in goal for the Garnet.
Swarthmore returns to action on Thursday when it travels to Richard Stockton for a 7:30 contest that was rescheduled from March 23.
McDaniel 2 2 4 1 9
Swarthmore 3 1 2 2 8
Goals:MC (9) Steve Hoffman 4, Kolyn Kirby 2, Brad Baer 2, Matt Buschman.
SC: (8) Jeff Donlea 2, Tom Coughlin 2, Ryan McKenna, Gavin Nurick, Tim Chryssikos, Jay Charles
Assists: MC (6) Baer 2, Rob Weaver 2, Cory Nellissen, Hoffman.
SC (5) Chryssikos 2, Coughlin 2, McKenna.
Goaltenders:
MC - Chad Schell 60 min., 23 saves, 8 GA
SC- Frank Mazzucco 60 min, 5 saves, 9 GA
Shots: MC 19, SC 57.
Penalties: MC 6 for 5:30; SC 1 for 0:30
Man Advantage: MC 0 of 1, SC 1 of 6
Attendance: 184