Young At Heart of Garnet Overtime Win
TOWSON, Md. -- Garnet junior midfielder Ben Young scored the game-winning goal 6:12 into overtime as the Swarthmore men's lacrosse team snapped a four-game skid with a 7-6 win at Goucher Wednesday afternoon.
Young (Washington, D.C. / St. Alban's) had two goals and an assist as Swarthmore improved to 5-4 overall and used overtime to defeat the Gophers (6-3) for the fourth time in six seasons.
The Garnet held a 6-4 lead after junior midfielder Dave DeSimone (Ronkonkoma, N.Y. / Connetquot) tallied his fifth goal of the season off a feed from Young at the 12:11 mark. DeSimone (left) scored twice on the afternoon, the first multi-goal game of his career.
Goucher scored the next two goals to send the contest into extra time. The annual non-conference battle is no stranger to one-goal decisions. Last season Swarthmore won at home 5-4 in two extra periods after outlasting the Gophers 8-7 in three overtimes in 2006.
The Garnet again would taste victory as Young took a pass from sophomore Tyler Bradshaw (Marietta, Ga. / Lassiter) and scored on an extra-man opportunity with 1:48 left in the second overtime.
Goucher controlled many parts of the stat sheet, grabbing 48 ground balls to Swarthmore’s 27 while posting 36 shots to 30 for the Garnet. The biggest swing came as Swarthmore successfully killed off four Goucher extra-man opportunities.
Senior defender Drew Bonessa (Pittsburgh, Pa. / Shady Side) (pictured right) led the Garnet with eight ground balls while winning eight of 14 face-offs.
Swarthmore goalie Frank Mazzucco ’08 (Redding, Conn. / Joel Barlow) made 14 saves in between the pipes.
The Garnet conclude its current three-game road trip at McDaniel College this Saturday, April 5 with a 3:00 p.m. Centennial game. Swarthmore returns home on Wednesday, April 9 to face fifth-ranked Washington (Md.) in a 7:00 p.m. Centennial contest.