---

BY VICTOR BRADY

In print | Published November 5, 2009

After two straight draws, the men’s soccer team returned to its winning ways on Saturday, defeating Haverford on the road with a 4-2 final score.

The regular season finale, played in a steady cold rain, saw Morgan Langley ’11 score for the first time since Oct. 7. With the win, the Garnet clinched the second seed in the Centennial Conference playoffs.

Having been shut out for only the second time this season in that penultimate game against Muhlenberg, the Garnet offense jumped to life at Haverford.

In just the 14th minute, David Sterngold ’12 took a pass from defender Brett McLarney ’12 from the right wing, and six minutes later, Langley scored his team-leading 13th goal of the season, giving the Garnet a two-goal lead.

Defender Gage Newman ’11, who missed the matchup with Muhlenberg due to illness, added two goals in his return to the Garnet to cap the Swarthmore scoring.

Coach Eric Wagner believes that the Garnet, even though they couldn’t put a shot into the net against Muhlenberg, was able to build from its strong performance on Senior Day at Swarthmore. “We had our chances [against Muhlenberg].

We hit the crossbar, we had another one go off the post, and I thought that we played extremely well,” Wagner said.
“Our guys did everything they could. In the overtimes, we had eight shots. We’re disappointed, but not disappointed in how we played and how hard we worked,” Wagner added.

The hard work paid off for the Garnet on Saturday, as Swarthmore dominated play and scored more goals than they had in their previous four games combined — and the most goals in a game since Oct. 3 against Gettysburg.

Swarthmore finished the regular season as the leader in most offensive categories in the Centennial Conference, including shots, corners and goals per game, scoring .4 more goals in each contest than second-place Dickinson.

As the Garnet turns towards the Centennial Conference playoffs, Langley’ s goal represents the transition and metamorphosis of the junior who scored just three times last season. “Morgan plays a big part — and he has realized that his part is more than just scoring goals — it’s setting up goals, it’s drawing attention away from other guys like [Sterngold] who can score, and he is developing as a player and becoming a much more complete player now,” Wagner said.

The Garnet will begin its march to the Centennial Conference title game against Johns Hopkins in a rematch of the 2008 Conference Championship game, where the Garnet defeated the Blue Jays at Clothier Field by a score of 1-0.
For the first time since 1990-1991, the Garnet has won back-to-back games against the Centennial Conference rivals, having defeated the Blue Jays in this year’s conference opener on Sept. 19. Swarthmore and Hopkins will begin play tomorrow at Muhlenberg at 4 p.m.

But although the Garnet was able to shutdown Hopkins’ potent offense in that first match-up this season, the players know that tomorrow’s conference semifinal will be an intense game.

“It’s always difficult to play a team twice in a year, especially one as tough as Hopkins. It’ll take an even better team effort and more creativity because they have already seen how we beat them before and they’ll look to stop that,” Fabian Castro ’12 said. Castro is tied for second on the team with five assists.

“Any game we have against Hopkins is treated like a championship game. So, we just need to have that mentality again.  We need to remain strong defensively and let the offensive put in a couple goals,” said Morgan Langley, who finished second in the conference in goals behind Hopkins’ John Bukoski, though Bukoski played in two more games than did Langley.

John Pontillo ’13 and the entire Swarthmore defense will need to play especially well due to the absence of two-year starter Pierre Dyer ’12, who will be unavailable in Friday’s game due to a red card he received in the regular season finale.

“We want to make sure that we stay organized and focused in the back against Hopkins,” said Pontillo, who has played the second-most minutes for the Garnet this year, just four behind defensive stalwart Newman.

“Against Muhlenberg, we locked them down on defense. We really just need to finish the job,” Pontillo added. The Garnet and the Blue Jays have each allowed just .59 goals against per game this year.

“We have been one of the best defensive teams in the country over the past several years, and this year has been no exception,” Wagner said. “It’s going to be a battle — that’s for sure. It should be a fantastic match.”

In the other Centennial Conference semifinal, top-seeded Muhlenberg will play fourth seed Dickinson, who defeated fifth seed Franklin & Marshall last night by a score of 2-0. Swarthmore’s semifinal can be heard live via the Garnet Sports Network at athletics.swarthmore.edu.

The winners of the semifinal matchups will return to the field at 7 p.m. on Saturday to play for the Conference Championship and an automatic berth to the NCAA Division III Tournament.

Earlier in the week, ESPN the Magazine announced that McLarney and goaltender David D’Annunzio ’12 were named to the Magazine’s Academic All-District II Team as voted on by the members of the College Sports Information Directors of America.

McLarney earned a first-team selection while D’Annunzio was named to the third-team. To be nominated for the team, a student-athlete must be at least a sophomore with a 3.2 cumulative grade-point average and a starter or significant reserve on his or her team.

---

« RETURN TO SPORTS

« PREV ARTICLE | NEXT ARTICLE »