HAVERFORD, Pa. - The Haverford College men's lacrosse team (3-1) earned its third non-conference victory of the season, by defeating the MAC Commonwealth's Widener Pride (0-3) 16-6 on Wednesday evening. The midweek tilt took place on Swan Field, on an unusually warm February evening.
It was the Philip Passalaqua show early against the Pride, as the junior collected a game and season-high seven points off of five goals and two assists. In the faceoff X, Drew Buck went 8-15 for the Fords, while on the ground Matt Richards collected eight ground balls. Defensively, Ronan West caused four turnovers, while Jacob Abraham made eight saves off of 12 shots faced to earn his third win of the season.
Widener got off to an early start, as Matthew Marino fired a shot past Jacob Abraham at the 9:12 mark to give the Pride a quick 1-0 lead. The Fords answered back in a big way, rattling off four unanswered goals to close out the first quarter up 4-1. Richards found the back of the net to get the rally going, before Philip Passalaqua tallied three-straight goals to give the Scarlet and Black a three-goal advantage.
Nicholas Knepp of the Pride snapped the Haverford run, by tallying his first goal of the game 42 seconds into the second quarter, before Will Weinstein earned his first-career goal, followed by Passalaqua man-down goal to push the lead back up to 6-2 in favor of the Fords. Bryant Maits collected a man-up goal with 11:20 flashing on the scoreboard, before goals from Evan Wolpert and Passalaqua extended the Haverford advantage up to five to 8-3. A man-up goal from Matt Buckley of Widener cut the lead down to 8-4, as the Fords carried a four-goal lead into the halftime break.
The third stanza was really where Haverford began to pull away, as a 6-0 third quarter put the Fords up by 10 goals, 14-4, heading into the final 15 minutes. The Scarlet and Black later saw goals from Jonathan Moon, Richards, and Braeden Hulett, while Wolpert added two more goals in the stretch. Charlie Vaccaro scored his first-career goal to continue what was quickly becoming a momentous run for the Fords.
Weinstein secured goal number two to kick off the fourth quarter, before a man-up goal from Horgan stopped the 7-0 run from Haverford, to make the score 15-5 with 6:16 to go. JT Anderson scored his first-career goal with 5:24 remaining in the contest, before another goal from Knepp at the 2:46 mark brought the game back to a 10-goal gap, 16-6, with just 2:46 left to go. However, the hole was too steep for the visitors, as the Fords were able to see time expire on a commanding 16-6 victory on Swan Field.
Men's Lacrosse will wrap up their quick two-game homestand on Saturday, March 1, as the Fords host the Stockton Ospreys at 12 p.m on Swan Field.
