CHESTERTOWN — Washington wraps up its Centennial Conference regular season in men’s lacrosse here tomorrow [Saturday, April 18] at noon against No. 12-ranked Gettysburg with the chance to wrap up the top seed in the conference tournament that begins at the end of the month.
Riding a three-game win streak, the Shoremen are 12-3 — the most wins in one season since the 18-2 NCAA semifinalist squad of 2014 — and 6-1 in the conference.
They are guaranteed a winning season for the first time since 2018.
This also will be the first winning season for John Nostrant ‘86, who came on board as the head coach at his alma mater in May of 2021.
Washington positioned itself to win the Centennial’s regular-season crown with Wednesday night’s 12-11 sudden victory at home over Swarthmore.
Junior attackman Peyton Gestole of Sudlersville, a two-time conference Offensive Player of the Week this spring, scored the golden goal with only 50 seconds elapsed in the 4-minute extra session.
Gestole’s Queen Anne’s County High School classmate Carson Crawford of Centreville was credited with the assist.
Washington and Swarthmore [9-6, 3-3] traded goals through the opening 15 minutes for a 5-5 draw.
Ben Zabierek’s solo run with 3 seconds remaining in the first frame, which leveled the score at 5-all, sparked a 4-0 run that gave the visiting Garnet an 8-5 lead with 3 minutes, 14 seconds remaining in the half.
Sophomore attackman Nate Winters’ goal, from Talan Behler, with less than a minute to play before intermission was Washington’s only tally of the second quarter.
Swarthmore won the face-off to start the second half, and 39 seconds later Clay Almgren found the back of the net to restore the guests’ three-goal lead, 9-6.
Washington scored the next five goals in a furry that carried over into the fourth quarter, and took its largest lead of the night, 11-9, on Jake Laubach’s unassisted goal with 6:32 remaining in regulation.
Winters, who leads the Shoremen with 37 goals, started the run with 9:01 to play in the third quarter.
Behler found Gestole for the tying goal with 9:40 to play in regulation and Crawford made it 10-9 about a minute and a half later. Jake Arcudi had the assist on the go-ahead goal.
Swarthmore scored twice in the final 2:47 of regulation to send the game into overtime. Rex Mabbs scored the tying goal with 1:11 on the clock.
SWAT had the final shot of regulation, but Almgren’s try with 3 seconds to go was wide.
A face-off violation gave Washington the ball to start the extra period.
Gestole scored the game-winner on the first shot.
He finished with three goals.
Crawford and Winters also had hat tricks, Laubach contributed two goals and Arcudi had the other goal for the winners.
Behler was credited with four assists.
Freshman Keegan Dunn [7-1] made 13 saves to offset Swarthmore’s 55-42 advantage in shots.
NOTES: Washington is 4-1 in overtime games this year. Gestole [34-18-52] scored the game-winners against Dickinson, Haverford and Swarthmore and had the assist on Jack Dupuis’ golden goal against Stockton. He leads Washington in points and is second on the team in goals and assists.
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Gettysburg is 5-1 in the conference, with a 12-11 loss to four-time defending Centennial champion Dickinson on April 8, and 8-4 on the season.
The Bullets lead 38-17 in the series with the Shoremen that began in 1982.
