Mazzucco Named CC Defensive Player of the Week
LANCASTER, Pa. -- Swarthmore junior goalkeeper Frank Mazzucco (Redding, CT / Joel Barlow) has been named the Centennial Conference's first Defensive Player of the Week of the 2007 season.
Mazzucco, a team captain, made a number of tough saves in the Garnet's 5-4 double-overtime victory over Goucher College on Saturday, March 3, keeping the game close until the Garnet offense rallied to tie the match with three goals in the final 15:04 of regulation. The junior made a pair of saves in overtime before Swarthmore freshman Tyler Bradshaw scored the game-winner with 0:31 left in the second overtime period. The win was Swarthmore's second straight multiple-overtime win over the Gophers.
For the afternoon, Mazzucco made 14 saves in 18 attempts and grabbed a ground ball while facing a total of 38 shots. His .778 save percentage is tops in the Centennial.
Mazzucco is the first Garnet player to win Player of the Week honors since Andy Place '96 earned the same award for the week ending on March 25, 1996. 2007 is the first season in which the conference has awarded separate offensive and defensive POW awards.
Mazzucco and the Garnet play at Drew University on Wed, March 7 and return home to face the College of Wooster on Sat., March 10 before traveling to Yale University in New Haven, Conn. to face Amherst College on Sat., March 17. It will be a homecoming of sorts for Mazzucco and three teammates, who also hail from Connecticut.