Big Second Period Spurs Fords Past Garnet
HAVERFORD, Pa. -- Haverford broke open a scoreless game with five second-period goals and held Swarthmore scoreless for the first 32:02 of play on their way to an 11-6 win on a cloudy Saturday afternoon. Swarthmore's Kyle Wilson led all scorers with a career-high four goals, while Alex Guy led the Ford attack with three tallies.
Haverford goalkeeper K.C. Peterson was the star of the first period, making five saves. Garnet netminder Frank Mazzucco also made a pair of stops as neither team was able to find the net.
Swarthmore grabbed the second-period opening faceoff, but Haverford faceoff ace Peter Hannapel quickly retook control and fed teammate Max Tcheyan, who beat a defender and found the back of the net with just 13 seconds off the clock. Hannapel won the ensuing faceoff, and 35 seconds later Guy took an Andrew Kim feed and increased the lead to 2-0.
Dean Granoff scored a minute and a half later and Shane Hafer added a pair of goals late in the period to extend the lead to 5-0 at halftime.
Goals came fast and furious for both sides in the third period. The Garnet started off hot; Wilson tickled the twine twice in a 85-second span off of feeds from sophomore Will Predun and freshman Gavin Musynske. After Guy scored his second of the day off of an Grant Firestone feed, Wilson returned the favor to Musynske, who scored from just in front of the net with 10:25 on the clock.
Haverford's offense kept clicking, though, and Guy and Granoff scored in quick succession to get the lead back to 8-3.
Wilson's third goal was a particularly pretty. The speedy Predun saw his run towards the goal get blocked by a defender but got free around behind the net. Turning back towards the goal, Predun fed the ball over the net to Wilson, who wasted no time in putting it home.
Wilson would go on to add his fourth goal of the period off of a David DeSimone '09 feed with 2:54 on the clock. Tcheyan and Kim also notched goals, completing the 10-goal period (five for each team).
The fourth period was far quieter, with each team scoring just one goal. Haverford's Brian Fleishhacker put a Guy feed home with 9:16 left, while Swarthmore senior Jay Charles closed his career on a high note with an unassisted goal with 2:47 left.
Haverford's man-down unit had a banner day, going 6-6 on penalty kills. Hannapel won 11 of 19 faceoffs, The Fords held a 12-9 edge in faceoffs and a 41-27 advantage in ground balls. Shots were almost even--the Fords took 29 and the Garnet 28.
Peterson made 13 saves in net for the Fords; Mazzucco closed out a banner season with 12 stops.
The Fords complete the regular season at 8-5, 5-3 in Centennial Conference play and will face top-seeded Gettysburg in the conference playoffs. Swarthmore finishes the year at 5-7, 2-6 in the Centennial.
Though the 2007 Garnet laxers won just one more game than the 2006 squad, the Garnet showed a great deal of improvement and was just a goal here and a goal there away from a .500 season. Leading the way all season long was a hard-hitting and tenacious defense that held opponents to 7.92 goals per game. Junior Dan Sartori led the game with 44 ground balls and got plenty of help from captain Anthony Orazio '07 and Drew Bonessa '08 as well as a host of reserves.
Mazzucco improved his save percentage by .067 up to .624, placing him firmly in the upper echelon of Centennial netminders. The junior captain was at his best against St. Mary's (MD) on April 3rd, making 18 saves as the Garnet rallied late for a 5-4 win.
A pair of underclassmen emerged to lead the squad's offensive attack. Wilson, a sophomore emerged as the team's top finisher, scoring 19 goals. Freshman attackman Tyler Bradshaw also started every game and finished with 10 tallies and four assists. Musynske, another first-year, forced his way into the starting lineup midway through the year and converted a team-high 31.5% of his shot attempts on his way to a six-goal year. Predun was adept at using his speed to set teammates up; the sophomore finished with a team-high six assists.
Injuries struck the Garnet hard during conference play, as hard-hitting sophomore midfielder Todd Friedman went out for the year with four games to go and captain Charles was slowed as well.
All five of Swarthmore's seniors--Charles, Orazio, Gavin Nurick, Ryan McKenna, and Richard Jaronczyk--played heavy minutes and will be missed in 2008. Still, the Garnet will return most of their defensive core and their starting attack line and will be in line to take the next step and challenge for a Centennial playoff berth.