LANCASTER, Pa. – The Franklin & Marshall men's lacrosse team took a huge step towards qualifying a spot in the Centennial Conference Tournament as the Diplomats defeated an Ursinus squad that was receiving votes in the national polls by an 18-16 final on Saturday afternoon. It was a nearly wire-to-wire victory for the Diplomats despite the Bears being within a single goal of tying the Centennial Conference matchup eight times inside Shadek Stadium.

Tommy Garofalo and Will Mollihan both recorded seven points in the CC matchup. Garofalo scored five goals on his way to seven points, while Mollihan put the attack in motion all afternoon with six assists. Those six assists are tied for the ninth-most in a single game in program history. That last player to accomplish that feat was Luke Keating '21, who did so twice during the 2021 season. Christian Sullivan added four goals to the attack, while Cullen Decker finished with four points of his own (2g, 2a). Ten different Diplomats scored throughout the key Centennial Conference victory.

Will Mulligan scored the game's first goal just 53 seconds into regulation to help set the tone for the high-scoring affair. The Bears tied the game at two for the only even score following the opening faceoff. Pierce Archer and Jack Luviano also tallied goals during the first 15 minutes to get the Diplomats out to a 4-3 lead.

Matthew Freeman added his name to the scoresheet as part of a 5-3 second period advantage for the Diplomats that featured two more goals from Garofalo. Freeman later added an assist as part of a strong game overall for him as he went 23-for-36 (63.8%) at the X. Those 23 faceoff wins tied for the third most in a game at F&M and were the highest mark since Mike Sanzone won also 23 during the 2014 season. Freeman's faceoff wins led him to 11 ground balls for the eighth-highest total in school history. That total was the most for an F&M player since Jack Beatty collected 12 GBs during the 2021 NCAA Tournament victory against John Carroll.

Franklin & Marshall led 9-6 after 30 minutes, but the third quarter proved to be the highest scoring quarter of them all as each team found the back of the cage seven times. Sullivan scored three goals in that period alone, while Garofalo added two more during a quarter that also saw Kyle Stevenson get into the scoring action.

The Diplomats scored three consecutive goals late in the third quarter and took a 16-12 lead, but Ursinus eventually got the deficit back down to a single goal with three of the first four goals during the fourth and final period. F&M killed off the first five penalties that it was assessed during the Centennial Conference matchup and the Diplomats were finally able to take advantage of their own man-up chance with 5:12 remaining in regulation as Kai Kelly scored an insurance goal for the 18-16 final.

Ursinus outshot F&M by a slight 43-41 edge, but a combined 15 saves from the F&M goalies helped flip the game in the Diplomats' favor. Sage Garito made nine saves during the first half, while Eric Mueller added six more during the second half. Mueller came up with four of those saves during the fourth quarter as Ursinus was repeatedly denied its chance at the game-tying goal.

Kyle Craig had another strong game for the F&M defense with three caused turnovers and five ground balls. Ten different players secured multiple ground balls, leading to a 42-37 F&M advantage in that category.

With two weeks remaining in the regular season, the Diplomats will head to Chestertown this coming Wednesday for another key matchup against the Shoremen under the lights at 7 p.m. F&M wraps up its regular season home slate next Saturday with Senior Day against Muhlenberg.