Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 5/2/10
From Press Releases
Max Hjelm (Conestoga) scored four goals and the Haverford College men’s lacrosse team built leads of 6-1 and 10-4 and stunned second-ranked and host Gettysburg, 11-8, today to win its first Centennial Conference championship.
Haverford (11-5), which was unranked last week, earned its third straight trip to the NCAAs and first as an automatic qualifier. The Fords had advanced to the finals with another “upset,” a 12-11 victory in two overtimes over No. 5 Dickinson on Friday.
“We played (Dickinson and Gettysburg) these teams to one-goal losses during the year, and we felt we were better than those results,” said first-year Haverford College head coach Colin Bathory after Sunday’s championship victory. “They are obviously quality teams and they’re going to get their goals, but over the end of the season we started doing more things right, and from that, our confidence grew in both ends of the field. Now it’s a six-game streak and it’s time to get ready for NCAAs.”
Gettysburg (15-2) fell behind, 8-4, at halftime and trailed 10-4 before mounting s comeback. It was 10-7 until Andrew Kim (two goals) scored on a man-up goal for the Fords late in the game.
Zack Cohen added two goals and one assist and Joe Banno stood tall in goal all day for the Fords, finishing with 15 saves. Diillon Hamill and Grant Firestone each registered three caused turnovers to help lead the defense.
So now the Fords wait. National selection day for the NCAA championship is next Sunday with the opening round kicking off Wednesday, May 12, followed by the second round Saturday, May 15.
Haverford is in, and both Gettysburg and Dickinson, each with only two losses on the year, will likely get in via at-large bids allowing the Centennial to have three teams in the tourney. Whether the Fords, or the Bullets and/or the Red Devils, get a buy into the second round will be determined by nightfall next Sunday.
