SWARTHMORE, Pa. – The Franklin & Marshall men's lacrosse team dropped a 13-6 Centennial Conference matchup at Swarthmore on Saturday afternoon. The Garnet jumped in front early and the Diplomats never fully recovered from that early deficit.

Christian Sullivan tallied twice in the conference showdown for the visiting Diplomats, while Will Mulligan, Will Mollihan, Tommy Garofalo, and Cullen Decker also rattled the back of the cage on Saturday. Swarthmore countered with four multi-goal performances on its home turf.

Sullivan tallied his first of those two goals just over five minutes into regulation as Franklin & Marshall got out to the early 1-0 lead. Nevertheless, the Garnet responded with six consecutive goals of their own to take control of the game. Decker scored the final goal of the opening half on an assist from Mollihan to help the Diplomats eventually trimmed the deficit to 7-4. F&M got within three early in the third quarter following goals from Mulligan and Mollihan.

However, that three-goal deficit was the closest that F&M came in the second half despite tallies from Garofalo and Sullivan later in the third period. With the Garnet leading 11-6 heading into the final 15 minutes, they would lock down defensively during the of regulation for the eventual 13-6 final.

Despite the final score, F&M did win the face-off (14-8) and ground ball (26-23) battle against the Garnet. Matthew Freeman took all but one of the restarts at the X and was 66 percent (14-of-21) on those attempts. Starting goalie Sage Garito picked up a team-leading four ground balls and was one of eight Diplomats with multiple GBs throughout the afternoon.

Garito made nine saves during the first 30 minutes before Eric Mueller added four more saves during the second half. Swarthmore goalie Ryan Pretzer stopped 15 of the 21 shots on goal he faced as the hosts finished with a slight 42-37 edge in total shots.

Following another bye week in the schedule, men's lacrosse will look to turn around its Centennial Conference fortunes inside Shadek Stadium where the Diplomats are perfect 3-0 on the season. That undefeated home record will certainly be tested as No. 5 Gettysburg (April 12; 7 p.m.) and No. 19 Ursinus (April 15; 1 p.m.) make the trip to Lancaster in next week's CC action.