#3/#7 Army Men’s Lacrosse beat the tar out of hapless Holy Cross this past weekend, winning a decidedly lopsided contest, 17-4. 

We expected this, but I think we all still enjoyed watching it anyway.

We said last week that the Lafayette game would serve as the blueprint for most of Army’s Patriot League contests, and indeed, it held true in this one. The Crusaders came out and played physical, aggressive lacrosse through the first quarter and change, scoring first and then keeping the game close — at 3-2 — through the first period. However, the Black Knights put up nine unanswered in the second quarter followed by another five unanswered in the third, all while rotating back-ups liberally. Indeed, Army began emptying the benches midway through the third, so that they’d played seemingly everyone on the entire roster by game’s end, including no less than four goalies.

Statistic of the Week: Army won 15/25 faceoffs against Holy Cross despite All-American FOGO Will Coletti’s absence. With Coletti injured, yearling Robert Simone got the start, going 10/15 in the circle. Firstie Alec Vaccaro spelled Simone throughout the game, finishing 5/10.

We’ll come back to this.

The Lehigh Mountain Hawks

The Lehigh Mountain Hawks (4-2, 1-0 in the Patriot League) have an interesting and talented team. They also match-up well with the Black Knights tactically and therefore might present Army’s biggest challenge to date this season. 

Lehigh started the preseason picked to finish second in the Patriot League and either just inside or just outside the Top 20, depending on who you asked. Alas, they got off to a tough start in non-conference play, losing their first four straight before rebounding to win their last two. The Mountain Hawks dropped close contests to Rutgers and Fairfield University, got blown out by Cornell, and then lost another close contest to Richmond before finally rebounding to beat then-ranked Villanova, 10-7. Lehigh opened League play at then-#18 Navy this past weekend and shocked the newly ranked Mids, beating them 13-8 in a game that probably wasn’t even that close on the field. Oddly, the Mountain Hawks have been much better on the road (2-1) this season than they have been at home (0-3).

When their stuff is working, Lehigh plays a highly physical style reminiscent of Army’s. They win faceoffs, dominate possession in their offensive end, and play tough, very physical defense. Against the Mids, senior Lehigh FOGO Sean Dow won 23/25 faceoffs, setting up the Mountain Hawks to take 51 total shots to Navy’s 31, and oh by the way, Lehigh won 38/49 total ground balls. Navy outplayed Lehigh in almost every other facet, but it hardly mattered because the Mids barely had the ball.

Dow looks like the real deal. Dude has won 69/115 faceoffs this season (60%) with 3 shots and 1 actual goal. That will matter quite a bit if Army’s Will Coletti can’t go this weekend due to injury.

On offense, senior A Dakota Eierman has become Lehigh’s primary scoring threat. Eierman has 14 goals and 2 assists, followed by freshman A Luke Breslin (8 goals, 7 assists) and junior A Andrew Kelly (9 goals, 3 assists). Junior Peter Theodoropoulos might be the class of the midfield. He has a caused turnover, 3 ground balls, 2 goals, and 3 assists. On defense, junior Richard Checo gets it done with a whopping 14 caused turnovers and 19 ground balls. Sophomore G Kasey Heath has seen a LOT of shots this year. Though he’s allowing 10.3 goals/game, he also has *89* saves, yielding a highly respectable 58.9% save percentage.

Navy came into the Lehigh game without their top two FOGOs, and as much as anything, that’s why they lost. With that in mind, Coletti’s presence this weekend matters a lot, or if he plays while battling some kind of lingering injury. We can expect the team of Simone and Vaccaro to do considerably better than 2/25 in the circle against Dow if it comes to it, but as we said, Dow is good. The faceoff circle presents a very real Lehigh team strength. Whoever starts at FOGO, the Black Knights will need to continue to play good team defense, clear effectively, and maximize their offensive possessions. Lehigh will most certainly do the same.

We should be in for a good one this weekend, friends. Faceoff goes at noon with coverage on ESPN+.

Women’s Lax

Army Women’s Lax moved to 5-1 overall this past weekend, 1-0 in the Patriot League, following a 18-8 win over Boston University. This week, the Black Knights face #15 Loyola, perennially the class of the Patriot League and, indeed, a team that has never actually lost a conference contest.

This Army Women’s team has a ceiling that is almost as high as the Men’s team, but the Women haven’t found the same kind of consistency. If they can push Loyola and keep this one close enough that the outcome stays legitimately in doubt through four full quarters, then maybe this team can do something at the national level. However, we haven’t necessarily seen all the pieces come together just yet for the Women’s team. Heading into one of the biggest games of the season, we’re still wondering just how good this team actually is. How good might they become if they really get their mojo working?

We’ll know a lot more after Saturday. Like the Men, the Women draw starting at noon on ESPN+.

Go Army! Beat Lehigh!!! Beat Loyola!!!