Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 5/16/10
From Press Releases
A seven goal outburst pushed the No. 11 Haverford College men’s lacrosse team past host and seventh-ranked Dickinson College in a 13-5 second round NCAA championship victory Saturday afternoon at Biddle Field, moving the Fords into the NCAA’s third round for the first time in program history.
Goals from Phillip Valliant and Max Hjelm (Conestoga) opened the scoring and gave visiting Haverford (12-5) a quick lead over the Red Devils (15-2) but the hosts netted three scores in a row to take their first — and only — lead of the game.
The Fords will play No. 2 Salisbury (Md.) University – a 17-2 winner over Springfield (Mass.) College – in a third round game Wednesday, May 19, at a site and time to be determined.
Hjelm notched his 41st of the season to tie the score and kick off a seven goal run that began at the 7:32 mark of the first quarter and extended into the opening minute of the third stanza.
Myles Monaghan followed Hjelm’s goal to give Haverford a lead they wouldn’t relinquish, then Valliant scored two in a row followed by another from Monaghan, then one from Andrew Kim that pushed the lead to five at the intermission.
Zack Cohen scored 53 seconds into the third period to give the Fords a 9-3 advantage and make the mountain Dickinson needed to climb a little higher.
The Red Devils’ Ward Gruppo finally broke the Haverford string but four more unanswered Fords goals effectively put the game out of reach with less than nine minutes remaining and the visitors up 13-4.
Hjelm led all scorers with four markers and added an assist for a five-point game. Valliant finished with three goals, Monaghan with two and four more Fords had one score apiece.
The Haverford defense and goalie Joe Banno, who finished with 13 saves, limited the Red Devils to their lowest scoring output this year since an 11-5 regular season loss to Gettysburg College. Five different players scored one goal each for Dickinson in Saturday’s loss.
In front of Banno senior defenders Matt Dooley and Grant Firestone caused four and three turnovers, respectively, and as a team the Fords caused 17 of Dickinson’s 29 turnovers.
In the offensive end, the Fords converted two of their five extra-man opportunities while holding Dickinson scoreless on its three man-up tries and outshot the Red Devils by a 46-33 advantage.
Haverford earned its third successive opening round bye in the tournament this year after losing in the second round the previous two seasons, but the third time was the charm for the Fords who move on to the third round for the first time.
