We’re down to the last week of the Patriot League’s regular season, and a lot rides on the outcomes of this week’s games. Your Army Black Knights, currently the consensus #12 team in the country, could still finish as high as first in the conference and as low as sixth heading into the conference championship tournament. This insane uncertainty stems from the reality that four teams currently hold a share of first place in the conference while two teams hold a share of fifth.
The logjam in conference standings creates the following madness, as laid out by James from Brigade Review:
Bottom line:
— Colgate holds the tie-breaker over Army.
— Lehigh holds the tie-breaker over Colgate.
— Army holds the three-way tie-breaker over Lehigh and Colgate collectively.
As a result, Army can finish first if the Black Knights beat Loyola, and either Boston U. beats Colgate or Lehigh beats Lafayette. A win at Loyola ensures that Army will finish at least second in the conference and thereby earn a first-round bye in the Patriot League Tournament. By comparison, a loss to Loyola will put Army no higher than third in the conference and open the very real possibility of a road game in the tournament’s first round.
Friends, these Friday night games have become critically important.
Everything is on the table for the regular season finale on Friday night at #20 Loyola!#NOW pic.twitter.com/zRX9xl4cjH
— Army Men's Lacrosse (@ArmyWP_MLax) April 22, 2024
Beat Loyola!
Loyola (7-6, 5-2 in the Patriot League) has had kind of the opposite of Army’s season. They started sluggishly but have since come around to play outstanding lacrosse late in the year.
The Greyhounds opened with a win over then #11 Georgetown. Alas, they dropped their next three games to Maryland, Johns Hopkins, and Rutgers, respectively, losing all three by wide margins. The Greyhounds bounced back to beat Towson in overtime the following week, only to lose to Colgate, Duke, and Boston University in successive weeks right afterward. Since then, Loyola has reeled off five straight wins, beating Lafayette, Lehigh, Bucknell, Holy Cross, and then Navy. Against all odds, this perennially great team has a chance to somehow right its season and set itself up for a run at the NCAA Tournament with a win tomorrow night.
The @LoyolaMLAX team rode its first-quarter energy to its fifth-straight win, beating Navy, 12-10, on Friday night.https://t.co/Dm87IuETLt#gohounds | @Patriot_Gameday
— Loyola Greyhounds (@LoyolaHounds) April 20, 2024
Loyola has a good defense, a perennially good ride, and an outstanding goalkeeper, but they’ve needed to start hot this year to have a chance in competitive games.
Freshman FOGO Carson Hall provides a prime example. He won 4 of the first 6 faceoffs in Loyola’s game against Navy this past weekend. With that, Loyola jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the game’s first quarter. However, Hall finished just 11/25 on restarts overall, and indeed, he stands just 67/172 (39.0%) on faceoffs over the season. Navy clawed their way back into that game with their defense and their ability to win possessions, but they never quite overcame that first quarter deficit, nor could they start hot after halftime. That proved to be the difference in the game.
Loyola senior Goalie Luke Staudt has made 142 saves this season, good for a 52.6% save percentage. He won the Patriot League’s Goalie of the Week award after his team’s victory over Navy and should be expected to have a good game this Friday as well.
Loyola fields a three-headed monster on attack. Grad student Adam Poitras leads the team with 47 points on 34 goals and 13 assists. Grad student Evan James and sophomore Matthew Minicus follow close behind with 44 and 40 points, respectively. That’s an outstanding trio. However, if Army can hold all three guys in check, they will have handled the vast majority of Loyola’s offensive production.
As noted above, Loyola is well-known for their ten-man ride. Army will need to be efficient clearing the ball to give themselves a chance this week.
We’ll see how that goes.
🤘 𝗟𝗲𝘁’𝘀 𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗸 𝗥𝗶𝗱𝗹𝗲𝘆 on Friday night as @LoyolaMLAX hosts Army in a game that could decide the @PatriotLeague regular season title!
— Loyola Greyhounds (@LoyolaHounds) April 25, 2024
👕 Free t-shirts to the first 300 @LoyolaMaryland students!#GoHounds pic.twitter.com/ff1bJgtdA4
Final Thoughts
Army plays at Loyola, Maryland, this Friday night starting at 7:00 pm. CBS Sports has coverage. We ought to see excellent weather for this game, with temperatures starting in the upper-60s and falling maybe into the upper-50s over the course of the evening.
Alec and Robert were in their bag on Friday night !
— Army Men's Lacrosse (@ArmyWP_MLax) April 21, 2024
The duo stepped up for us in a huge way going 18-28 on faceoffs!!#NOW pic.twitter.com/CUkR80l02C
Army has every chance to win, but they will need to handle Loyola’s offense early, make crisp passes when clearing and in the Black Knights’ offensive end, and aggressively manage Loyola’s ride. Unfortunately, the Black Knights have not been consistently excellent breaking rides this season, while Loyola is traditionally very good at creating turnovers in the clearing game. The Black Knights struggled mightily against Boston University’s ride, and that, among other things, cost them the game. They did better with Colgate’s, but they still left themselves some serious room for improvement in a game in which they never quite got on track.
This one could easily run along similar lines if Loyola gets out to an early lead and then forces turnovers in the clearing game. That’s the obvious strategy to use against this Army team. By comparison, the Black Knights can win by winning faceoffs, playing controlled, settled offense, and dominating time-of-possession overall. With that, they’ll wear down Loyola’s defense and prevent their ride from becoming a factor.
This is a big game, friends. Expect it to be a hard-hitting, hotly contested affair.
Go Army! Beat Loyola!!!
Cover image via Army West Point Lacrosse on Facebook.
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