Here are the official recaps of Saturday’s college lacrosse action, courtesy of the schools’ Sports Information Departments…
JHU Cavaliers a 12-11 Win Over Second-Ranked Virginia
BALTIMORE, MD – A youth-filled Johns Hopkins men’s lacrosse team rode the emotion of a quick start to build an 8-3 lead against second-ranked Virginia early in the third quarter of Saturday’s showdown at Homewood Field. When the run by the senior-laden Cavaliers came – as everyone knew it would – many in the crowd of 3,200 figured the Blue Jays had given Virginia its best shot and the experienced Cavaliers would ride its momentum to victory.
A funny thing happened after the Cavaliers grabbed a 10-9 lead with just over nine minutes remaining in the fourth quarter; it was the Blue Jays who responded, not just once but three times to grab a 12-11 victory that answered the question of how they would respond to last week’s 5-4 double-overtime loss at top-ranked Syracuse.
After Virginia’s Rob Emery capped a 7-1 Virginia run that turned the 8-3 deficit into the 10-9 lead with 9:17 remaining, the Blue Jays turned to sophomore Lee Coppersmith, who completed his first career hat trick with a bullet that beat Virginia goalie Adam Ghitelman upstairs. The Cavaliers answered with an unassisted goal by junior Steele Stanwick 62 seconds after Coppersmith’s strike, but that would be the last time Virginia would beat JHU goalie Pierce Bassett and the Blue Jays struck twice down the stretch off the creative play of freshman Rob Guida.
Guida needed less than a minute after Stanwick’s goal to pull the Blue Jays even at 11 as he spun past a defender 10 yards from the goal and fired home a left-handed shot that beat Ghitelman.
The Blue Jays failed to convert on an extra-man opportunity shortly after Guida’s goal, but scored what proved to be the game-winner with 1:39 remaining when Guida, working from the side of the net, slipped a nifty pass to the slot and senior Chris Boland one-timed it home to complete his hat trick.
Virginia won the ensuing faceoff and had possession in the Blue Jay zone for most of the final 85 seconds, but Bassett came up with one save and the Cavaliers couldn’t get off a final shot on a loose ball situation in front of the goal as the final horn sounded.
A late-game flurry didn’t look like it would be necessary early on as the Blue Jays jumped to a quick 2-0 lead on goals in unsettled situations by Chris Lightner and Phil Castronova. The 2-0 lead held until late in the first quarter, when JHU struck for goals by Mark Goodrich and John Greeley in a 66-span to double its lead to 4-0. Goodrich’s tally came with the extra man and the goose egg in the first quarter by Virginia marked the first time this season UVa failed to score in a quarter.
The Cavaliers finally broke through with an extra-man goal by Matt White with 9:28 remaining in the second quarter and the Cavs pulled were within 5-3 after a Boland tally was answered by back-to-back goals by Colin Briggs and Chris Bocklet midway through the quarter.
Coppersmith, who moved to the first midfield after Greeley left the game with an injury, struck for the first two of his three goals in a 69-span late in the period and the Blue Jays moved out to the 8-3 lead when Guida capped JHU’s first possession of the second half with the first of his two goals on the day.
When Boland answered back-to-back goals by Stanwick and John Haldy midway through the period the Blue Jays still led 9-5, but that’s when Virginia, the highest scoring team in the nation, answered – quickly.
Senior Shamel Bratton ignited a four-goal outburst that took all of 63 seconds as he scored with 1:36 remaining in the third quarter and Stanwick followed with a goal six seconds later off the ensuing faceoff. Emery added the first of his two goals 28 seconds after that and Bratton capped the flurry with his second goal of the day with 33 seconds remaining in the period to make it 9-9 at the end of the third quarter.
The scoring slowed early in the fourth quarter before Emery gave Virginia the 10-9 lead just under six minutes into the fourth quarter. That set the stage for a frantic final nine minutes, which saw Hopkins score three of the final four goals to secure the victory.
Boland led the Blue Jays with three goals and one assist, while Coppersmith added the three goals. Guida chipped in with the two goals and one assist and sophomore Zach Palmer added three assists for the Blue Jays, who also got 14 saves from Bassett and a 14-of-24 performance from senior Matt Dolente on faceoffs.
Stanwick paced all scorers in the game as he had three goals and four assists, but Virginia’s first midfield managed just three goals on 14 shots and only Bratton and Emery managed more than one goal for the Cavaliers, who were held scoreless for more than 20 minutes to open the game. The Cavaliers held slight advantages in shots (44) and ground balls (37-30) and Ghitelman posted nine saves.
Johns Hopkins, which snapped a six-game losing streak to Virginia, earned the Doyle Smith Cup with the victory. The Doyle Smith Cup is awarded annually to the winner of the Johns Hopkins-Virginia game in honor of Johns Hopkins graduate and longtime Virginia lacrosse media relations director Doyle Smith.
#2 Virginia (7-2) 0-3-6-2/11
#11 Johns Hopkins (6-2) 4-3-2-1/12
Goals: V: Stanwick-3, S. Bratton-2, Emery-2, White, Briggs, Bocklet, Haldy. J: Boland-3, Coppersmith-3, Guida-2, Goodrich, Greeley, Castronova, Lightner. Assists: V: Stanwick-4, O’Reilly-2, Ince, White. J: Palmer-3, Boland, Guida. Saves: V: Ghitelman-9. J: Bassett-14. Shots: V-44. J-42. EMO: J: 2-for-5. V: 2-for-2. Attendance: 3,200.
#8 Tar Heels Take #5 Terps, 11-6
COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Senior Grant Catalino scored a hat trick for the No. 5 University of Maryland men’s lacrosse team, but it wasn’t enough as the Terps lost an 11-6 decision to No. 8 North Carolina Saturday afternoon at Capital One Field at Byrd Stadium.
Maryland (6-2, 0-2 ACC) jumped out to an early 4-0 lead, but the Tar Heels (7-2, 1-1 ACC) scored the next eight goals to take control of the game.
Sophomores Owen Blye and Landon Carr scored the game’s first two goals to give the Terps a 2-0 lead midway through the first quarter. Catalino then scored back-to-back goals 11 seconds apart from one another to up the lead to 4-0.
Carolina got on the board with a goal by freshman Pat Foster, who was making his first career start, to make it a 4-1 game with 3:34 left in the first.
The Terps appeared to take a 5-1 lead with just over a minute left in the quarter when senior Ryan Young snagged an errant shot and quickly moved the ball on to sophomore John Haus, who one-timed it into the Carolina net. But the officials waived off the goal, saying a whistle was blown due to a loose-ball push on the Tar Heels prior to the shot.
Maryland took its 4-1 lead into the second quarter, but a random stick check between quarters proved to be a key moment in the game and swung momentum in favor of the Tar Heels. Officials selected Young for a random check between quarters and ruled his stick to be shorter than allowed by NCAA rules. Young was given a 3:00 non-releasable penalty to start the second quarter.
Carolina could only score once on the 3:00 penalty, but that proved to be the start of five unanswered goals in the second that gave UNC a 6-4 lead going into halftime.
Tar Heel freshman Nicky Glasso, who led all scorers with six points on two goals and four assists, upped Carolina’s lead to 8-4 to start the third quarter, scoring a goal and assisting on another.
Junior Joe Cummings finally put the Terps back on the board with his lone goal of the day with 9:44 remaining in the third. Cummings used a nice re-dodge to slip past two Tar Heel defenders before finally beating UNC goalie Steve Rastivo with a slick shot to make it an 8-5 game.
Maryland looked like it might have momentum back on its side, but Carolina’s Jimmy Dunster scored less than two minutes later to up UNC’s lead back to four.
The Tar Heel advantage grew to 10-5 on Foster’s third goal of the game at the beginning of the fourth quarter.
Maryland then had another goal taken off the board by the officials with 8:49 left in the fourth. Cummings scored on a nice shot from the left wing, but the officials waived off the goal due to a Carolina defender pushing a Terrapin player into the crease before the ball went into the net.
The Terps retained possession and did cut the Tar Heel lead back to four on Catalino’s third goal of the game, but three more minutes had ticked off the clock in the process.
Carolina was then able to kill some clock and eventually got an empty-net goal from Dunster to make it an 11-6 final.
One of the bright spots for the Terps was the play of sophomore face-off man Curtis Holmes, who won 15-of-20 face-offs, including 15-of-19 against Carolina freshman R.G. Keenan, who came into the game ranked ninth in the NCAA with a .645 winning percentage. Holmes also finished the game with a game-high six groundballs.
Senior defender Brett Schmidt also turned in a solid performance for Maryland, holding UNC senior All-American Billy Bitter, the 2010 ACC Player of the Year, without a point and limiting him to just three shots in the game. It is the second consecutive meeting between Maryland and North Carolina that Schmidt had held Bitter without a point.
Maryland closes out its regular-season ACC slate on Saturday, April 2, when it plays at No. 2 Virginia. The Terps and the Cavaliers are scheduled for a noon start at Scott Stadium. The game will be broadcast nationally on ESPNU.
Game Notes:
• With today’s 11-6 loss Maryland is now 38-21 all-time vs. North Carolina.
• With three points on three goals, senior Grant Catalino now has 13 hat tricks, 42 multi-point and 33 multi-goal games for his career.
• Catalino’s three goals give him 106 for his career, moving him past Bill Pettit (103, 1962-64) for sole-possession of 10th place on the school’s all-time goals list.
• Catalino’s three points gives him 168 for his career. He needs four more to tie Mike Mollott (172, 2000-03) for 15th place on the Terps’ all-time points list.
• Senior Ryan Young’s one assist gives him 80 for his career, moving him into a tie with Brendan Hanley (1985-88) for 15th place on the Terps’ all-time assists list.
Tigers Fall in CAA Opener at Delaware, 8-7
NEWARK, Del. – Despite two goals from senior midfielder Pat Britton, the Tigers (2-5, 0-1) were unable to hold off defending Colonial Athletic Association champion Delaware (6-3, 1-0) as the Blue Hens rallied to post an 8-7 victory in the Tigers’ CAA opener at Delaware Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Junior attackman Eric Smith scored the game-winning goal with 4:29 remaining in the fourth quarter as the Blue Hens overcame a 5-0 first quarter deficit to earn their second straight win. Smith, who scored two goals in the win, took a pass from junior defenseman Taylor Burns and scored past senior goalkeeper Travis Love to give Delaware an 8-7 lead before the Blue Hens held off a late Tiger rally.
Led by two goals each from Britton and senior attackman Tim Stratton, the Tigers jumped out to a commanding 5-0 lead in the first 11 minutes of the game.
But, the Blue Hens answered with a four-goal run of their own to end the first quarter and trim the deficit to 5-4. Junior attackman Grant Kaleikau scored a goal with an assist during the run for the Blue Hens.
After sophomore attackman Matt Hughes upped the Tigers’ lead to 6-4 just 35 seconds into the second quarter, the Blue Hens scored back-to-back goals from junior attackman Sean Finegan and sophomore midfielder John Mills to even the score at 6-6 at the intermission.
Following a scoreless third quarter, junior midfielder Carl Iacona regained the Tigers’ advantage when he scored his third goal of the year, an unassisted marker past senior goalkeeper Noah Fossner with 13:21 left in regulation.
But, the Blue Hens answered with a pair of goals to take a one-goal lead. Before Smith tallied the game-winning goal, senior midfielder Kevin Kaminski scored his sixth goal of the season with an unassisted marker to tie the game with 11:11 left.
Smith and Finegan each scored two goals to lead the Blue Hens while Kaleikau added a goal with two assists. Fossner made 10 saves for Delaware, which outshot Towson by a 29-27 margin.
Hughes and Stratton each scored two goals with one assist in a losing effort for the Tigers while Love made nine saves.
The Tigers will return to Johnny Unitas® Stadium next Saturday afternoon to host eighth-ranked Hofstra in a Colonial Athletic Association game at noon. Meanwhile, the Blue Hens will travel to Drexel next Saturday.
Post-Game Notes
- The Tigers and the Blue Hens met for the 52nd time in the all-time series on Saturday … Delaware has won two straight games in the series, but the Tigers still hold a 35-17 advantage.
- Despite the loss, the Tigers have won six of the last ten meetings against Delaware.
- Each of the last eight games in the Towson-Delaware series have been decided by three goals or less … Of the last 20 games between the two long-time rivals, 17 of them have been decided by four goals or less.
- The Tigers held Delaware scoreless in the third quarter, marking the fifth time in seven games that Towson has not allowed a goal in the third quarter … Towson has outscored its opponents by a 9-6 margin in the third quarter this year.
- Hughes has scored a goal in each of his last three games … He also has a point in 10 straight games.
- Hughes has scored the Tigers’ first goal of the game three times this year.
- With his two-goal effort on Saturday, Britton has now scored a goal in four consecutive games … He also has a point in eight straight games.
- Britton tallied his ninth career multi-goal game with the two goals against Delaware.
- After not scoring in the Tigers’ first five games, Stratton has scored three goals in the last two games … He also posted his 12th career multi-goal game and 30th career multi-point game.
- With an assist in the first quarter on Saturday, senior midfielder Elliott Domanic tallied his first point since May 2, 2009 against Villanova.
- Kaminski scored the 50th goal of his college career in the fourth quarter on Saturday.
Strong Second Half Lifts Loyola Over The Mount
EMMITSBURG, Md. – Loyola University Maryland senior Matt Langan scored two goals and had three assists, all in the second half, as the Greyhounds rallied from a 4-2 halftime deficit to defeat host Mount St. Mary’s, 14-10, in non-conference action on Saturday afternoon at Waldron Family Stadium.
The Greyhounds (4-3 overall) scored four goals in the first 5-minutes, 27-seconds of the second half, including two by Patrick Fanshaw, to go up 6-4.
Mount St. Mary’s (3-4) eventually tied the game at 9-9 on a man-up goal by Bryant Schmidt with 10:30 left in regulation, but Loyola scored five of the game’s last six goals to secure the win.
“Our challenge to the guys at halftime was to be physical and first to the ball, make sure that we were winning all of the loose balls,” Loyola Head Coach Charley Toomey said. “I think we were able to do that, especially with our wings on the face-offs. We knew that the face-offs were going to be physical battles, so we had to make sure that our wings were getting to them.”
Loyola, which won just 2-of-8 face-offs in the first half, gained possession on the opening salvo at the `X’ by John Schiavone. The Greyhounds were able to convert the win into a goal 1:27 later as Davis Butts rolled toward the goal after setting a screen for Mike Sawyer, took Sawyer’s pass and in one motion shot from the left side to cut Mount St. Mary’s lead to 4-3.
Schiavone won possession on the ensuing face-off, and after Brian Smalley drew a penalty on The Mount’s Kevin Downs, Loyola scored its first extra-man goal of the afternoon. Fanshaw took a Langan pass and beat Mountaineers’ goalkeeper T.C. DiBartolo from in front of the crease for his second goal of the day.
Another Mount penalty led to Loyola’s third goal of the third quarter, this time Fanshaw took a Chris Basler pass and scored, giving the Greyhounds a 5-4 advantage with 10:46 to play in the frame.Loyola extended that lead just over a minute later, as close defender Reid Acton cleared the ball himself from the defensive end, stepped unmarked into the box and one-hopped a shot in front of DiBartolo to score his first career goal with 9:33 on the clock.
An Andrew Scalley goal 1:20 later stopped the Greyhounds’ run, but the teams traded goals back-and-forth until the end of the quarter. Scalley scored again – he had a game-high four goals – with 15 ticks left before the end of the third to make it 8-7 Loyola going into the final 15 minutes.
The Mountaineers tied it up at 8-8 and eventually 9-9 with 10:30 remaining in regulation on Schmidt’s extra-man goal.
Loyola went back up by two, however, within five minutes. Chris Palmer, who scored his first goal of the season earlier in the fourth quarter, took a Langan pass and gave the Greyhounds the lead for good with eight minutes even left.
Langan then hit Basler with a pass on the doorstep, and the graduate student one-timed a shot into the net for an 11-9 Loyola lead.
Scalley scored his fourth of the game with 5:22 to play, but Langan tallied a man-down goal – Loyola’s second of the game and third in two weeks – with 4:53 remaining. Mike Sawyer added an extra-man goal 1:25 later on a Basler assist, and Langan tallied his second with 1:46 remaining.
Loyola outshot the Mountaineers, 34-28, and the Greyhounds put 24 of those shots on goal. The Greyhounds also held a 31-26 advantage in ground balls, 11-2 in the fourth quarter.
In addition to Langan’s two goals and three assists, Fanshaw had three goals and an assist. Long-stick midfielder Scott Ratliff scored a career-high three points with a goal and two assists in unsettled situations, and he had a game- and career-high six ground balls.
Mount St. Mary’s got on the board first, just over four minutes into the game as Brett Schmidt curled from around the crease to score with 10:53 to play in the first quarter.
Sawyer evened the game at 1-1 6:20 later, taking a Ratliff pass in transition and burying a shot from 12 yards out.
Loyola scored again in an unsettled situation, after Ratliff picked up the ground ball following a protracted face-off win by J.P. Dalton, dishing a pass off to Fanshaw who used a stick fake to beat DiBartolo and give the Greyhounds a 2-1 advantage 32 ticks into the second quarter.
The Mount, however, scored three unanswered to end the first half, going up 4-2 when Bryant Schmidt scored from the left side with 26 seconds left in the second quarter.
Loyola returns to ECAC Lacrosse League action next Saturday when it travels to Columbus, Ohio, to face Ohio State at 1 o’clock.
McCullough’s 13 Saves Pace UMBC in Come-From-Behind Victory Over Quinnipiac
BALTIMORE – UMBC junior goalkeeper Brian McCullough (Garden City, N.Y.) returned to the UMBC nets and made 13 saves, leading the Retrievers to a 9-7 victory over Quinnipiac in a non-conference match-up at UMBC Stadium.
The Retrievers snapped a four-game slide, while the Bobcats dropped their second consecutive contest, both to America East squads. Both teams are now 2-4 on the campaign.
UMBC was led offensively by sophomore attackman Scott Jones (Port Coquitlam, B.C.) who scored a pair of goals and added an assist. Sophomore midfielder Scott Hopmann (Annapolis, Md./St. Mary’s) added two goals, while junior attackman Rob Grimm (Black River, N.Y.) chipped in with three assists.
Quinnipiac was led by senior attackman Jack Oppenheimer, who scored a pair of goals and added a helper.
UMBC tied the score at 5-all, 6-all and 7-all in the fourth quarter, forging the last tie on a high, hard shot by sophomore midfielder Dave Brown (Coopersburg, Pa.) with 7:19 remaining. Ten seconds later, Quinnipiac midfielder Matt Minor was flagged for an illegal body check, giving UMBC its third man-up opportunity of the game. Jones made an excellent skip pass to the weak side and Hopmann hard bounce shot beat QU netminder Kevin Benzing at the 6:23 mark, giving the Retrievers their first lead since 1-0 in the first 74 seconds of play.
Jones then became the first Retriever to hit the 10-goal mark on the season, giving UMBC an insurance marker as he made an acrobatic catch of a Grimm pass and fired in a shot from close range with 3:16 to play.
McCullough then came up with two saves in the final minute to seal the victory for the Retrievers. He started the first three games for UMBC, but suffered a broken thumb during his 14-save effort in a 13-9 loss at North Carolina. Sophomore Adam Cohen (Arnold, Md./The Severn School) started in losses to Johns Hopkins and Maryland, but McCullough got the nod and evened his season mark at 2-2 with the victory.
The Retrievers had to come from four goals down to prevail in the contest. Jones scored on a quick shot inside off a Grimm feed just 1:14 into the contest, but the Bobcats won the ensuing draw and equalized the score on a goal by Christian Haggerty six seconds later. That started a 5-0 run by the visitors, which was capped by an Oppenheimer score at the 6:50 mark of the second quarter.
UMBC trimmed the gap to 5-3 at halftime and came within a goal after 45 minutes as Hopmann broke an 18-minute scoring drought by both teams with an unassisted score with 1:05 to play in the stanza.
The Retrievers matched their season high for goals in a quarter with five in the final stanza.
Quinnipiac outshot UMBC, 34-25 and had a 31-28 edge in ground balls. UMBC was sparked by the efforts of freshman midfielder Phil Poe (Harwood, Md./DeMatha), who won seven of 11 face-offs and led UMBC to an 11-8 advantage on draws.
UMBC also snapped a seven-game home losing streak, which came on the heels on a 29-5 advantage at UMBC Stadium from 2006-09.
Sophomore midfielder Neill Lewnes (Arnold, Md./St. Mary’s) added a goal and an assist for UMBC, while junior defender Tim Shaeffer (Annapolis, Md./Annapolis) scored his first collegiate goal in the second quarter.
Benzing, who attended Mt. St. Joseph HS, made a pair of saves in a return to the area.
UMBC opens America East Conference play on Friday, April 1 when they travel to Stony Brook to take on the 2010 NCAA quarterfinalist Stony Brook Seawolves. The opening draw is set for 7:00 p.m.
Colgate’s Stifling Defense Stops Mids, 5-4
ANNAPOLIS, Md. —The Navy men’s lacrosse team (4-5, 2-3 Patriot League) scored the game’s first-two goals, but scoreless lulls of 21 and 31 minutes in the first and second halves, respectively, allowed Colgate (6-3, 2-0 Patriot League) to score a 5-4 win over the Mids and snap Navy’s three-game winning streak. Colgate, the only Patriot League foe who has beaten the Mids on their home field since Navy joined the league in 2004, has now won two in a row against the Mids at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.
Navy jumped out to a 2-0 lead with back-to-back goals within a minute of one another by senior midfielder Kevin Doyle (Towson, Md.) (8:09), followed by a speed dodge goal by Nikk Davis (Cockeysville, Md.) (7:15).
While the Mids looked to have the game well in hand, they were dealt a blow when senior midfielder Andy Warner (Corning, N.Y.) got tangled up with a Colgate player and Warner suffered a blow to the head. For precautionary reasons, Warner was held out of competition for roughly 15 minutes of game play. Although Warner did return to the game midway through the second quarter, Navy’s offense never seemed to get the swagger back in its step.
In fact, Colgate rattled off three-straight goals to take a 3-2 advantage with 5:15 to play in the opening half. Rookie midfielder Jimmy Ryan kicked off the run with a left alley dodge past Navy defensive midfielder Jordan Seivold (Minnetonka, Minn.), sending his shot from 10 yards out past Navy keeper RJ Wickham (Penn Yan, N.Y.) with 47 seconds left in the first quarter. Faceoff specialist Jim Carroll won the faceoff to open the second frame and found the nation’s sixth-ranked goal scorer Peter Baum for the equalizer at 14:54. The Raiders took the lead with 5:15 remaining in the second when Warner’s errant pass was picked up by Colgate defenseman Greg Perkins and off to the races they went. The Navy turnover led to one of three transition goals by Colgate, this one by long pole Dave Tucciarone.
The Mids finally got themselves back on the scoreboard when Warner found freshman attackman Tucker Hull (Charlotte, N.C.) for a five-yard shot just to the right of the goal at the 1:12 mark. The assist by Warner extended his point scoring streak to 21-straight games dating back to last year’s Lehigh contest.
Navy’s efforts were short-lived, however, as Carroll won the ensuing faceoff for the Raiders and got the ball to senior middie Rob Bosco. Filling the middle, Bosco passed the ball off to Baum on the left wing, who fired off a shot that appeared to hit defenseman Michael Hirsch (Schwenksville, Pa.) before taking a hop and finding its way into the goal with 1:01 left to take a 3-2 advantage going into halftime.
The third quarter featured several shots that would never find the back of the net until the 4:30 mark when the Raiders perfectly executed their transition game that resulted in a Ben McCabe goal from roughly seven yards out and extended their lead to 5-3.
After barraging Colgate keeper Jared Madison with 11 shots over the final 2:19 of the game, the Mids finally were able to get within one. But the eight-yard unassisted goal by junior attackman Taylor Reynolds (Babylon, N.Y.) came too late for the Mids, as he scored with just two ticks left in the contest.
The stats were virtually even from category to category with Navy outshooting the Raiders, 31-26 and holding a 30-28 advantage in ground balls. Colgate won seven faceoffs to Navy’s six, while Navy turned the ball over 17 times and Colgate recorded 14 turnovers.
Navy’s defensive put together what Meade called its best effort of the year on the heels of just a three-goal effort by Holy Cross a week ago. Remarkably, it’s just the second time in the last eight seasons that Navy has been tripped up when holding an opponent to six or fewer goals (53-2).
Wickham, who had a solid performance between the pipes for the Mids with nine stops, became just the 12th player in program history to reach the 300-save milestone. He stands 12th on the Mids’ all-time saves list with 306.
Hirsch played a spectacular game where he was paired up against Baum. While Baum did score two goals, both were off unsettled situations following faceoff wins by the Raiders. Hirsch closed out the game with a career-high six caused turnovers.
“I’m encouraged that we played so well defensively, but I’m also disappointed because our defense was stellar and our offense could not match that performance today,” said Navy head coach Richie Meade. “Offensively we just didn’t get the job done. We had opportunities to shoot and didn’t. Colgate did a good job of packing it in and did a good job inside of tying us up. But it wasn’t anything we weren’t expecting. We talked about it all week. we were in position to shoot a bunch of times and didn’t pull the trigger.”
On the flip side, Colgate’s defense held Navy, one of the most proficient and prolific offensive units in the country this season, to a season-low four goals. The Mids came into the contest averaging 11.00 goals per game and were ranked fifth nationally in shot percentage.
“It was the first time this year that I thought our offense played young,” added Meade. “I’m in no way making an excuse for us, but we just made poor decisions at times and we really needed someone to step up. I thought we played extremely tight. Perhaps Andy getting hurt early put us out of sync, but at the end of the day we just didn’t shoot.”
Navy returns to action next Friday when it travels to the nation’s capital to face Georgetown.
