Fighting Scots Charge Past Garnet
SWARTHMORE, Pa.-- Visiting Wooster scored four goals in the second half to defeat Swarthmore 9-6 in non-conference men's lacrosse action Saturday afternoon at Clothier Stadium. The Fighting Scots improve to 3-0 on the season while the Garnet drop to 1-1.
Sophomore Tim Lee scored two goals in the first 5:37 of the final period--the first an unassisted shot from the left wing, and the second coming on an extra-man opportunity at 9:51. Wooster senior attack Hisham Hassan followed with one of his two goals 59 second later, finishing off a pass from sophomore Chris Gatsch at 8:52 to give the visitors a commanding 8-5 lead.
Swarthmore's Will Predun '09 had a goal and an assist while Jay Charles '07, Todd Friedman '09, Kyle Wilson '09, Ryan McKenna '07 and Gavin Musynske '10 all scored goals for Swarthmore.
Hassan led Wooster with two goals and two assists while sophomores Lee and Mark Weschler also scored twice. Senior Chris Vaccaro and Gatsch added a goal and an assist apiece for the Fighting Scots.
Mark Beister made 19 saves in goal for Wooster while Garnet goalie Frank Mazzucco made eight stops on the afternoon.
Swarthmore lit the lamp at the onset of the contest when captain Charles notched his first goal of the season at 13:26. The midfielder made a cut to the left side of the net and cashed in a pass from sophomore Stelios Wilson. The action began to see-saw as Hassan put Wooster on the board with his first goal of the day at 11:24. Swarthmore came back with Wilson's first career goal, an unassisted shot to the lower right side of the cage, at 1:04. The Fighting Scots tied the score at 2-2 with five seconds left in the first period, as Hassan lofted a pass over the top of the cage which Vaccaro one-timed into the net.
The Garnet scored the lone goal of the second period at 6:09--Predun took an outlet pass from the Swarthmore defense and streaked down the field. The sophomore continued undeterred to the front of the Wooster net and dished off to Musynske, who beat Biester on the left shelf for his collegiate goal. The Garnet held the 3-2 lead into the intermission.
Swarthmore controlled play early in the third period, and Musynske and Friedman each got good shots off, but Biester stopped both, keeping the Garnet lead at one. Finally, with just over nine minutes to go, Gatsch ran the ball over to the right wing and shot the equalizer just to Mazzucco's left and into the goal. Soon, the Scots took a 4-3 lead when, after a Swarthmore penalty, Ben Abbott took a Hassan feed just inside the yellow line and launched the ball straight into the net.
The Wooster lead proved to be short-lived. Swarthmore won the ensuing face-off, and soon Friedman had the ball to the right of the goal with one man to beat. The sophomore juked the defender right off his feet, took a few steps, and put it home. A few minutes later, Predun bounced a shot over Biester's stick and into the top of the net, putting Swarthmore back on top at 5-4 with 40 seconds to go, but the Scots stormed back, tying the score with five seconds left when, off of a dead ball, Vaccarro lobbed the ball over the net to Weschler, who put it home for the 5-all tie.
The Garnet held a 38-21 shot advantage and collected 23 groundballs to 20 for the Fighting Scots, but were hurt by seven Wooster extra-man opportunities (two of which the Scots scored on). The Garnet won nine of the 17 face-offs with Charles going 4-of-8, Friedman 3-of-7, and Adam Miller '08 2-of-2. John McVarish took all of the face-offs for Wooster, winning 8-of-17.
Swarthmore travels to New Haven, Conn. for its next game, a 12:00 p.m. contest against Amherst on the campus of Yale University. The Garnet return home on Wed., March 21 for a 7:00 p.m. Centennial Conference contest with Urinus.