Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 5/15/16
From Press Release
The 2016 season concluded on a high note for Swarthmore College Men’s Lacrosse as the Garnet outlasted the Stockton University Ospreys in the ECAC Mid-Atlantic Championship. The Garnet held off the Ospreys 7-6 to secure the championship on Sunday afternoon.
Swarthmore senior defender Matt Lambros earned Most Outstanding Player honors after helping the Garnet defense limit its tournament opponents to 14 total goals.
Swarthmore’s scoring was distributed evenly among seven players as Matt Johnson, Dylan Rittenhouse (Downingtown East), Cam Marsh, Griffin Johnston, Nathan Relich, Braeden DeWan and Bryan Murray all scored.
Murray had the wildest goal of the game, a shot that ended up being the difference in the contest. After the faceoff to open the fourth quarter, Swarthmore’s Graham Lesko recovered a ground ball near the sideline and was shoved out of bounds. However, as he was falling out, Lesko chucked a pass across the field to Murray who was wide open behind the defense. Murray, a long pole, caught the pass and dumped in a goal from about 15-feet away that gave Swarthmore a 7-3 lead with 14:41 to play.
Swarthmore established a convincing 3-0 lead early. DeWan barged his way through the defense less than two minutes in to record the game’s first goal. A low shot from Rittenhouse set up by Marsh gave Swarthmore the 2-0 advantage with 3:26 left in the first. With 10:38 left in the second, Relich restarted the ball from the endline and scored on a fadeaway shot.
Stockton responded with a pair of goals in the next five minutes, but Johnson gave Swarthmore a boost going into halftime by slipping in between a pack of five defenders and scoring with just 10 seconds left in the half.
Stockton pulled within one with 6:42 left in the third, but goals by Johnston and Marsh gave Swarthmore some breathing room headed into the final quarter.
After Murray scored his goal to lead off the fourth, Swarthmore appeared to be in good shape with a 7-3 lead. The Garnet, however, were charged with penalties on three consecutive possessions and Stockton took advantage on each of those extra-man opportunities. The Ospreys scored with 7:03, 5:33 and 5:16 left. The Garnet locked down the rest of the way and prevented the Ospreys from completing the comeback. Cole Fox recorded six saves in the win.
The Garnet, after having one of the most successful seasons in program history, will graduate eight seniors: Matt Lambros, Daniel Palmer, Will Black, Mike Selverian, Conor Clark, Jimmy Gastner, Braeden DeWan and Alex Scott.
Swarthmore finished the 2016 campaign with 12 wins, the most in a season in program history.
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