CHESTER, Pa. – The No. 15 Swarthmore College men's lacrosse team took control with five unanswered goals in the first half and went on to win the 2025 season opener, 13-6, at Widener University on Saturday afternoon. It was the Garnet's fourth straight win against the Pride.
Both teams struggled to find the back of the net early on with the first tally coming from the Pride at the 5:09 mark of the opening quarter.
Michael Hardiman finally got the Garnet on the board late in the period, setting off a 5-0 Swarthmore run that finished in the closing minutes of the second. The Garnet doubled up Widener, 8-4, in the second half to ensure the victory.
Clay Almgren and
Rex Mabbs each tallied two goals and two assists to lead the Swarthmore offense.
Ryder Maston,
Nolan Ohrman,
Danny Lowe, and
Owen Hoffman all scored twice with Maston adding an assist. The Garnet dominated at the faceoff dot, winning 18 of the 22 draws. Swarthmore was 4-for-9 on extra man opportunities while holding the Pride to just 1-for-6 while a man up.
Ryan Pretzer got the start in goal and racked up 13 saves.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- The first quarter saw a lack of offense with just two total goals in the period. Widener broke the ice with 5:09 on the clock before Hardiman tied the score with 1:25 to go. The Garnet found their rhythm in the second. Mabbs capitalized on a man-up situation to give Swarthmore a 2-1 lead with 7:53 left. After assisting on the first two Garnet tallies, Almgren beat the goalkeeper himself just 26 seconds after Mabbs' goal. Hoffman and Mabbs added two more markers to give make it 5-1 Swarthmore with 4:34 remaining. The Pride ended their goal drought with 29 seconds to play in the period and trailed 5-2 at halftime.
- The two teams traded goals to begin the third quarter and the score was 6-3 at the 12:59 mark. The Garnet pulled away with three consecutive goals, two by Lowe with an Ohrman score in between, and the margin was six (9-3) with 9:22 to go in the frame. Widener rallied by keeping Swarthmore off the board for the rest of the period and scoring three in a row to close the gap to three (9-6) with 11:40 remaining in the fourth quarter.
- The Garnet put an end to the Pride's comeback attempt with four straight goals to end the contest. Maston provided back-to-back tallies at 10:34 and 5:49 respectively. Almgren scored his second of the game with 4:03 to go and Hoffman netted Swarthmore's fourth man-up goal of the day with 3:25 on the clock to conclude the scoring.
GARNET LEADERS
Points: Almgren, Mabbs 4
Goals: Six players 2
Assists: Almgren, Mabbs 2
Shots: Hardiman 11
Ground Balls:
Matthew Martinez 7
Caused Turnovers: Lowe 2
Faceoffs: Martinez 11-14,
Jack McHenry 7-8
Saves: Pretzer 13
UP NEXT
The Garnet (1-0) host Eastern University for their home opener on Wednesday.
