HAVERFORD, PA -- Haverford College built a 3-0 lead in the first period and held on for a 9-7 victory over visiting Franklin & Marshall College in Centennial Conference men's lacrosse action.

Haverford jumped out to the lead midway through the period as Joe Mauri found Ben Reed and Matt Keller for goals at 9:27 and 7:42, respectively, before Mike Distler scored off a pass from Dean Granoff with 4:29 left in the period.

The Fords pushed the lead out to 4-0 1:05 into the second period as Granoff converted on an assist from Max Tcheyan with 13:55 left.

Franklin & Marshall cut into the lead nearly seven minutes later as Kevin Kohl (Jr., Manasquan, NJ/Loomis Chaffee) finished a pass from Brett Leppert (Fr., Baltimore, MD/John Carroll) with 7:07 left on the clock on a man-up opportunity to trim the margin to 4-1.

However, Haverford closed out the half with two goals as Granoff found Reed for a score at 5:48 and Matt Thorne-Fitzgerald tacked on an unassisted goal with six seconds remaining before halftime for a 6-1 lead at the break.

The Diplomats moved to within three goals of the Fords top open the second half as Noah Wilkinsky (So., Ardmore, PA/Valley Forge Military Academy) beat Haverford goalie K. C. Peterson off an assist from Mark Hild (Fr., Denver, CO/Denver East) at the 13:24 mark before Kohl finished a feed from Phil Schellhorn (Jr., Wilton, CT/Wilton) at 12:50 to pull to within 6-3.

Tcheyan responded with an unassisted goal at 11:11 before dishing a pass to Mauri for a score with 8:07 left in the third period to push the lead out to 8-3.

Franklin & Marshall countered with a four goal run ignited by an unassisted goal by Hild at the 7:24 mark. Peter Moon (So., Durham, NC/Durham) added a man-up goal at 4:12 to pull F&M to within 8-5 before Schellhorn fired a pass to David Steiner (Fr., Chappaqua, NY/Horace Greeley) who finished the helper with 1:39 remaining in the third period to pull to within 8-6 with 15 minutes left to play.

Franklin & Marshall appeared poised to tie the game in the midway through the fourth period as Leppert found Hild for a goal with 8:07 left on the game clock to inch the Diplomats to within 8-7, but Tcheyan added an insurance goal off an assist from Thorne-Fitzgerald with 6:06 on the clock for the 9-7 final.

In goal, Tim Kjeldgaard (So., Yarmouth, ME/Hyde) made 10 saves on 27 shots to take the loss, while Peterson stopped 13 of the Diplomats' 34 shots to earn the win.

Historically, F&M is now 17-3 all-time against Haverford in men's lacrosse as the Fords defeated the Diplomats 9-5 in Haverford on April 3, 2004 and 12-11 in overtime on April 15, 1998.

Franklin & Marshall (5-3, 1-0 Centennial Conference) will continue the season on April 8 in Centennial Conference action at Muhlenberg College. Game time is set for 1:30 p.m.

SCORE BY PERIODS
Franklin & Marshall (5-3, 1-1 CC) 0-1-5-1 - 7
Haverford (6-3, 2-0 CC) 3-3-2-1- 9

Goals:
F&M - Mark HIld (2), Kevin Kohl (2), Peter Moon (1), Noah Wilkinsky (1), David Steiner (1)
Haverford - Max Tcheyan (2), Ben Reed (2), Joe Mauri (1), Dean Granoff (1), Matt Thorne-Fitzgerald (1), Mike Distler (1), Matt Keller (1)

Assists:
F&M - Brett Leppert (2), Phil Schellhorn (2), Mark Hild (1)
Haverford - Dean Granoff (2), Joe Mauri (2), Max Tcheyan (2), Matt Thorne-Fitzgerald (1)

Goalie (Saves/Goals Allowed/Minutes)
F&M - Tim Kjeldgaard (10/9/60)
Haverford - KC Peterson (13/7/60)

Shots - F&M 34, Haverford 27

Ground Balls - F&M 28, Haverford 34

Face-Offs - F&M 9-of-18, Haverford 9-of-18

Extra man - F&M 2-for-9, Haverford 0-for-2

Clears - F&M 19-of-22, Haverford 20-of-31

Attendance - 200