Box Score
LANCASTER, Pa. – Gettysburg was outscored 4-1 to start the game and the No. 2-ranked Bullets never recovered, falling 11-9 at Franklin & Marshall College in the regular season finale for both teams Saturday evening.
Although Gettysburg (13-2, 7-1 CC) had clinched the Centennial Conference regular season title heading into the game, F&M (8-5, 4-4 CC) spoiled the Bullets attempt at a 10th undefeated Centennial Conference record. The Diplomats also snapped Gettysburg's five-game winning streak and handed Gettysburg its first Centennial Conference loss since the Bullets 6-5 setback at Haverford College on March 18 of last season, ending a 14-game CC regular season winning streak.
Junior Drew Duckworth (Rye, N.Y./The Hotchkiss School (Conn.)) scored a career-high four goals to lead the Bullets while sophomore Joe Brody (Bethesda, Md./Walter Johnson) and junior Tom O'Donnell (Montgomeryville, Pa./La Salle College) scored two goals apiece. Senior Ben Sufrin (Mahopac, N.Y./Mahopac) handed out a pair of assists.
Mark Hild scored three goals for Franklin & Marshall, which received all 11 of its goals and 17 of its 18 assists from its starting lineup.
The Dips never trailed after Shane Brennan scored an unassisted goal 2:23 into the contest. O'Donnell tied it up just over two minutes later, but Bobby Askins put F&M in front to stay with a goal midway through the period. Noah Wilkinsky and Hild added two more goals before the end of the period, with Hild's coming with one second on the clock, to give the hosts a 4-1 lead after 15 minutes of play. Franklin & Marshall out-shot Gettysburg 12-3 in the opening quarter.
Duckworth scored his first two goals of the game in the second quarter, but those were also Gettysburg's only goals of the period as the two teams traded a pair of tallies. Hild's second goal with 2:45 on the clock made it a 6-3 game at intermission.
The Dips continued to pull away in the second half, as Peter Moon and Shane Brennan scored five and a half minutes apart to push F&M's advantage to 8-3 with 4:16 left in the third quarter. Brody ended nearly an 18-minute scoring drought for Gettysburg when he cashed in on a man-up opportunity with 44 ticks showing, pulling the Bullets to within 8-4 heading into the final period.
After F&M tied its largest lead of the night (9-4) on a Sean Oliver goal 52 seconds into the fourth quarter, Gettysburg sliced the lead to three when Duckworth and O'Donnell scored five and a half minutes apart, with O'Donnell's strike making it 9-6 with 4:28 left. However, Oliver and Hild answered with a pair of big goals for the Diplomats, and Hild's final tally of the game gave F&M a commanding 11-6 lead with 2:17 remaining.
Duckworth scored with 1:15 left before Brody tacked on another goal with 43 ticks showing, but it was too little too late as the Dips held on the rest of the way.
Chris Marcozzi made 15 saves for F&M while junior Zachary Furshman (Miami, Fla./Kent School (Conn.)) stopped 11 shots for Gettysburg.
The Bullets will host the Centennial Conference Championships next weekend. The tournament starts on Friday with Gettysburg, the top seed in the tournament, facing fourth-seeded Muhlenberg College and second-seeded and No. 4-ranked Washington (Md.) College taking on third-seeded and No. 9-ranked Haverford College in the semifinals. Start times for both games have yet to be determined. All games, including Sunday's championship match, will be played at Clark Field, as the Centennial Conference Track & Field Championship is being held in Mussleman Stadium during the same weekend.
