Despite missing All-American FOGO Will Coletti and losing 17/21 faceoffs, your #3/#5 Army Black Knights absolutely smoked the Lehigh Mountain Hawks this past Saturday, winning by a final score of 13-4.
Since the Black Knights barely ever started with the ball in this game, they had to win it on defense and in the clearing game first. They did this by forcing some 26 turnovers plus 4 failed clears while allowing just 27 total shots and just 15 shots on goal. Lehigh played solid defense in settled situations, but the Mountain Hawks could get absolutely nothing going on offense, and they had no answers for Army’s sheer size and athleticism in transition or other unsettled situations. The Black Knights therefore pushed the pace with their best players off all those turnovers, so that star A Jackson Eicher finished with a career-high *6* goals, and All-American D A.J. Pilate scored his first goal of the season off an insane long-pole wraparound shot.
All eyes on AJ 👀#GoArmy | #FamilyToughnessTradition pic.twitter.com/Kih9GDQ9We
— Army Men's Lacrosse (@ArmyWP_MLax) March 17, 2025
This week, the Black Knights host in-conference nemesis Boston University. Army hasn’t beaten BU since 2022, having lost to them in disastrous fashion — twice! — amid last-season’s otherwise would-be world-beating run.
Boston University Terriers
Unheralded in the preseason, BU has nevertheless gotten off to quite a good start in 2025. The Terriers stand 6-1 overall, 2-1 in the Patriot League, with convincing wins over Monmouth, Brown, Air Force, and Loyola. Despite losing 13-9 at Navy a couple of weeks ago, USA Lacrosse currently has them ranked #19 while Inside Lacrosse has them just outside the Top 20.
BU Head Coach Ryan Polley has had more success against Army Head Coach Joe Alberici than any other coach in the Patriot League, arguably more than any other coach in all of college lacrosse. At a minimum, we know that the Terriers will be ready for Army’s offensive and defensive schemes. The Black Knights might beat BU on sheer size and athleticism, but beyond those individual one-on-one match-ups, we know with certainty that this Terriers team will be prepared for whatever Army throws at them. BU is 4-0 against Army in their last four match-ups, and this at a time when the Black Knights were otherwise absolutely killing pretty much everyone.
As they do seemingly every year, the Terriers have built a legit three-headed attack. Junior A Jimmy Kohr leads the scoring with a whopping 21 goals plus 6 assists. Freshman A Timothy Shannehan leads the team in points, having scored 18 goals alongside 18 assists. Senior A Jimmy O’Connell rounds out this very potent attack with 16 goals plus 12 assists. Add in freshman M Mike Rooney — 10 goals plus 1 assist — and we see BU’s typical offensive scheme emerge. They move the ball a lot on offense, and they have a lot of guys who can put it in the nets.
As noted, Army fans know all too well how effective this can be.
Jimmy O'Connell was on another level today, including this incredible effort that is a #SCTop10 and #PLTop3 candidate! pic.twitter.com/u2cFCchC5V
— BU Men's Lacrosse (@TerrierMLAX) March 15, 2025
The Patriot League named BU goalie Will Barnes their Goalkeeper of the Week this past week after he made 11 saves and allowed a mere 4 goals in just over 55 minutes of play against Loyola. On the season, Barnes has saved a very respectable 78/129 shots-faced (60%) overall.
Through six games, freshman BU FOGO Madden Murphy has won 40/73 faceoffs (55%), though he took just three against Loyla. Senior Matthew Fritz came in last week and went 5/7, though he’s won just 46% of his own faceoffs on the season. Both guys seem to get plenty of work based on specific match-up concerns. We’ll see how the Terriers play it this week, and how Coletti’s presence or absence plays into their overall scheme.
Final Thoughts
This will be a tough match-up. These two teams know each other extremely well, and with their multi-headed attack, the Terriers tend to match-up better against Army’s defense than any other team in the Patriot League.
Granted, this year’s Army Team has an insanely talented defense. Coach Alberici has said that this is — by far — the best defensive unit he’s ever coached. As nuts as that sounds, the numbers back it up. This defense has allowed less than five goals/game total. They’ve given up virtually zero quality looks on cage this season, setting up G Sean Byrne to save an insane 73.2% of the shots he’s seen. So if any Army team is going to match-up against BU’s offense, it should be this one.
Still, these Terriers know what they’re up against. They’ve broken this defense down the last four times they’ve faced it.
So yeah. This should be a great game. It is certainly an important game. This is a game that both team needs — badly. Thankfully, we’re at Michie Stadium this week. Tickets are just $12, and the Black Knights are holding a “Bucket Hat Giveaway / Postgame Catch”. So this is most definitely not one to miss.
First faceoff goes at noon. ESPN+ has television coverage.
Let’s gooo!
Go Army! Beat BU!!!
