Garnet Traverse Continentals
SWARTHMORE, Pa. -- Swarthmore senior attacker Stelios Wilson scored four goals and junior Gavin Musynske added four points Thursday afternoon as the Garnet rolled to a 13-6 win over Hamilton (N.Y.) in non-conference men's lacrosse action.
Producing its largest goal-total of the season, the defensive-minded Garnet (sixth in Division III in scoring defense) improved to 6-5 on the season while the Continentals dip to 3-8.
Hamilton jumped out early on the Garnet, scoring the first two goals of the game. Swarthmore responded with a three-goal run, fueled by consecutive unassisted goals by Musynske (Floral Park, N.Y. / Floral Park Memorial), holding the 3-2 advantage at the end of the opening period.
The Continentals started the second period in the same fashion, scoring twice, including an extra-man opportunity at 10:01. Hamilton midfielder Stephen Lefebvre converted his sixth goal of the season off a feed Luke Sadoff to give the visitors the lead again, 4-3.
Musynske provided the response again for Swarthmore, scoring his third goal of the afternoon at 9:18 to tie the contest. Senior midfielder Henry Heaton (Geneva, N.Y. / Geneva) did most of the work on the Garnet transition effort, picking up his second assist of the season. Wilson (left) found the back of the net for his first goal on the afternoon 65 seconds later to put Swarthmore in front, 5-4.
Hamilton junior midfielder Frank Holiber scored his 13th goal of the season to tie the game again (5-5) with four minutes left in the half.
An extra-man opportunity with three minutes left before intermission got the Swarthmore offense clicking to the tune of a 7-0 run. Wilson and Musynske combined to convert the advantage, as Wilson notched his first man-up goal of the season (10th overall) to give the hometeam a lead (6-5) it would not relinquish while senior captain Ben Young (Washington, D.C. / St. Alban’s) added an unassisted goal with 52 seconds left.
The Garnet scored three times in the third period to open a 10-5 lead, starting the second half with a man-down goal by junior attacker Tyler Bradshaw (Marietta, Ga. / Lassiter). It was the first man-down goal for Swarthmore since March 2006 when current senior Will Predun (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. / Cold Spring Harbor) defied a Richard Stockton extra-man opportunity.
Wilson throttled home his third of the afternoon at the 5:08 mark, followed by the first collegiate goal by Swarthmore freshman Zach Belden (Cape Elizabeth, Maine / Cape Elizabeth) off an assist from Pat Green (Greenlawn, N.Y. / Chaminade). Two more Bradshaw scores completed the run and moved him into a tie with Musynske for the team lead in goals (17).
Garent goalie Kevin Friedenberg ’10 (Needham, Mass. / Needham) continued his excellent 2009 campaign, posting 15 saves on the afternoon, improving his save percentage to a season-best 66.5%. The junior (left) leads the Conference in both save percentage and goals-against average (6.11), ranking in the top-five in all of Division III for both categories.
Hamilton held a slight advantage in shots (38-32) and ground balls (29-27) but Swarthmore used a distinct face-off advantage (14-of-23) and a 2-for-4 effort in extra-man opportunities to improve to 3-2 in non-conference contests in 2009.
The Garnet have one more home game on the schedule and it is the biggest contest to date. Swarthmore will welcome sixth-ranked Gettysburg to Clothier Field this Saturday, April 18. The face-off is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. but fans are encouraged to arrive early as the Swarthmore lacrosse program will honor its seven seniors with a pre-game ceremony.