Army West Point Athletics
Army West Point
8-4, 4-3
Navy
8-4, 6-2
#13 Black Knights Fall to Navy
April 11, 2015 | Men's Lacrosse
WEST POINT, N.Y. -- Navy scored seven unanswered goals in the second half and prevailed over the 13th-ranked Army lacrosse team, 10-6, on Saturday afternoon at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.
Army (8-4, 4-3 PL) was led by Cole Johnson with two goals, while John Glesener was held to one goal or less for the third time this season. Billy Baird was a bright spot for the Black Knights with his first career goals coming in the first half. Sam Somers got the start in net and made seven saves.
The Black Knights have clinched a postseason berth in the Patriot League Tournament, but Army cannot get a bye to the semifinals. Army's seeding has yet to be decided and will be determined after the Colgate game next Friday.
Navy (8-4, 6-2 PL) got a hat trick from Casey Rees with two of the tallies coming in man-up situations. Patrick Keena and T.J. Hanzsche each had a pair of the goals for the home team. John Connors made nine saves, including five in the first half.
"I just want to start by saying congratulations to Rick Sowell, his staff and the whole Navy program," head coach Joe Alberici said. "I thought they did a great job today and were deserving of the victory so congratulations to them and our job going forward, as difficult as it is, is to move off this game and put our focus to the Patriot League Tournament."
Army came out on fire in the first quarter and built a 4-1 lead with four different goal scorers. The three-goal run for the Black Knights started at the 12:17 mark with Johnson scoring on an unassisted tally. The advantage continued with Newsome getting by his defender with a nice dodge and then finished low on Connors for the 2-0 lead. Billy Baird gave Army the 3-0 lead with 7:47 left in the opening quarter with his first collegiate goal. It came in transition as he was fed the ball by Jimbo D'Aprile inside the box and Baird beat Connors.
Navy got one back with Voumard stopping the bleeding to make it 3-1 at the 5:03 mark, but Conor Glancy answered on another transition marker to get the advantage back to three goals at 4-1 at the end of the opening 15 minutes.
The Mids were the only team to score in the second quarter and cut the advantage down to 4-3 going into the break. Casey Rees tallied both goals with one coming during a man-up situation. Army had a few chances, but couldn't capitalize due to three saves from Connors and four turnovers.
Navy clamped down on defense in the second half and scored seven-straight goals en route to the 10-7 win. Army started out well with the first two goals of the final 30 minutes with Glesener getting the scoring started, followed by Johnson's second of the day and Army had its largest lead at 6-3 with 2:24 remaining in the third quarter. Glesener was held to one point on the game and extended his scoring streak to 41 games.
Before the clock hit zero in the third quarter, the Mids scored one of its most important goals of the game with Jack Ray netting his 17th of the year to cut the Black Knights' lead to 6-4 at the conclusion of three quarters. Not knowing it at the time, the goal changed the game and gave momentum to Navy.
"I thought the goal at the end of the third quarter was the biggest goal of the game," Alberici stated. "I felt that we had secured possession down on the other end and to our kids credit they were playing to win and we took a shot, which was not at all a bad opportunity. Bottom line is they came up with it and got that goal to change the complexion of the game somewhat."
The Ray goal started a run that featured seven unanswered goals and ultimately put the game away. Hanzsche and Keena each had two tallies during the stretch, while Rees recorded his second man-up goal of the game. Connor Cook ended the streak with the final tally of the game coming with four seconds left. It was his 27th of the season and with the score he moved his scoring streak to 18 games. However, the clock ran out and the Mids snapped Army's six-game winning streak against Navy with the 10-7 win.
Navy outshot Army, 37-29, in the game and the Mids had the advantage in ground balls at 36-23. The man-up situations was in Navy's favor and the Mids scored two goals on three chances, while Army did not get a chance with the extra man.
"I thought defensively we were excellent throughout the whole game and even into the fourth quarter," Alberici said. "Some of those longer possessions they were able to secure the ball to elongate the possessions. The faceoffs overall were a positive for us, but in the fourth quarter they took control of that. It's a game of possessions and we needed more to crack their defense to get more goals."
Next up for the Black Knights is the final conference game of the season against Colgate on April 17 under the lights at Michie Stadium. The game will be featured on CBS Sports Network, starting at 7 p.m.
Beyond the X: This was the 94th meeting between Army and Navy and the Mids lead the series at 58-33-3 ... the Mids lead the series at Annapolis at 29-15-1 ... Navy snapped Army's longest winning streak in the series at six games ... third time this season the Black Knights have allowed 10 or more goals ... Army has now outscored its opponents 18-4 in the opening quarter in the last four games and 49-17 overall this year ... the Black Knights were shut out in a quarter for only the second time this season with the other coming against Holy Cross on March 7.
