By Aaron Rodenhausen
Elm Staff Writer
Last Saturday marked the close of the Shoremen’s first full week of the 2025 Centennial Conference men’s lacrosse season, where they played against Ursinus College and Franklin & Marshall College.
The game against the Ursinus Bears took place on March 26 in Collegeville, Pa. and began with a swift pair of goals from the visiting team. The Shoremen proved unable to answer their opening salvo for the remainder of the quarter.
However, WC took the first goal of the second period with senior attacker Grant Matthews scoring just one minute and twenty-three seconds in. After that, the Bears pulled ahead, but a shot from senior midfielder Cory Morgan around the halfway point put the Shoremen back within two, 4-2. The score advanced no further before halftime.
The Shoremen opened up the second half with gusto, scoring three goals during the third quarter. It was their first time outscoring the Bears, who only managed one.
Ursinus continued to pull ahead going into the fourth quarter; by the halfway mark, their lead had widened to 9-5. Morgan responded with the Shoremen’s first goal of the period, but the Bears matched him with one of their own. After that, the home team went on a last-minute 3-0 run that brought them within a point of their opponents, 10-9, just before the clock ran out.
“We are in a bit of a funk right now; I think it all comes down to whether or not we execute the things we practice come game time,” senior midfielder Ben Dickinson said. “I have no doubt we will play ourselves out of it.”
The Bears climbed to 3-6 on the season and 1-1 in the Centennial Conference while the Shoremen sank to 4-5 and 0-2, respectively.
“We have a lot of talent, and we will get back on track,” Morgan said. “A highlight of tonight is [that the] team has not quit. We dug ourselves a hole in the first quarter, and we were able to get back into the game late in the fourth.”
The week’s next game was on March 29 against the Diplomats of Franklin & Marshall College.
The Diplomats secured a two-goal lead in the first quarter and prevented WC from scoring until the period’s final two minutes, during which freshman attackman Nate Winters scored from a Dickinson assist. The Franklin & Marshall team scored again at the beginning of the second quarter, but was swiftly outpaced by the Shoremen, who managed to tie the game up, 4-4, by halftime.
WC’s momentum carried into the third quarter as the team took their first lead of the game on a Morgan goal. However, the Diplomats reclaimed the advantage with two last goals before the fourth. Morgan brought things back to a tie early in the final period, 6-6, before F&M scored two goals in two minutes. Still refusing to surrender, the Shoremen balanced the score a final time and forced the game into overtime.
The Diplomats came close to scoring in the last eleven seconds of the first extra session, but their attempt was ultimately negated by a crease violation. In the second overtime, however, F&M succeeded in scoring and clinched a very narrow victory.
With that, the Diplomats rose to 9-2 on the season and 3-0 in the Centennial Conference. WC, on the other hand, slipped to 6-5 and a demoralizing 0-3.
Nonetheless, Morgan remains optimistic.
“I don’t think we are in a rough patch at all. We just aren’t playing Washington College lacrosse right now…we have a lot of season left to play our brand of lacrosse,” Morgan said.
The Shoremen will next play at Muhlenberg College on April 5.