Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 4/9/17
From Press Release
For the first time since 1985, Swarthmore College Men’s Lacrosse beat No. 15 Gettysburg College, ending a run of 22 consecutive wins by the Bullets, and did so on the road. The Garnet topped the Bullets 10-8 behind six goals from freshman Austin Chang. They improved to 6-4 with Saturday’s win over the Centennial Conference opponent and dropped Gettysburg to 6-5 on the year.
Austin Chang led Swarthmore to a stunning upset (Photo courtesy of Swarthmore athletics)
The game was locked up at 8-8 with just under five minutes to play, but freshman Nathaniel Johns netted the go-ahead goal with 3:22 to play and Chang tallied his sixth goal of the game with 1:08 left to seal the deal. Senior goalie Cole Fox recorded two of his 13 saves in the final three minutes to protect the Swarthmore lead.
Chang’s six goals was a game high and are the most in a game for any Garnet player this season. Johns added a pair of goals and had two assists for the four-point game. No upperclassmen scored for the Garnet—sophomore Dylan Rittenhouse (Downingtown East) and freshman Jake Ross pitched in the remaining goals. Cam Marsh went without a goal for the first time this season but did record three assists.
From a statistical standpoint, Gettysburg held a slight advantage in shots, shots on goal, turnovers, clears, ground balls, faceoffs and extra man opportunities, but Swarthmore made its shot count and came up with more saves.
The teams traded goals in the first half with Gettysburg scoring first. Rittenhouse’s unassisted goal in with 7:57 left in the second quarter sent the teams into halftime tied at 3-3. Gettysburg scored the first two goals of the third, but then Chang went on a personal three-goal run to close out the third quarter and begin the fourth.
Gettysburg evened the score at 6-6 with 12:18 remaining, but Chang scored again off a feed from Marsh and then Ross gave Swarthmore an 8-6 lead with a goal with 8:54 to play. The Bullets bounced back with a man-up goal and then an even-strength goal with 4:54 remaining. The Garnet then withstood another man-down situation as Fox came up with a save with 30 seconds left in the EMO.
Ross then set up Johns for the go-ahead goal with 3:22 to play. Chang locked up the win two minutes later off another Marsh assist.