Friends, your Army Black Knights got a monster win this past weekend over a very talented team from the University of North Carolina in front of fully five thousand screaming fans. Army seemingly answered the doubters coming off their overtime loss to Boston University two weeks ago, moving back into 6th place in both the USILA and Inside Lacrosse polls. Haters are always gonna hate, of course, but it’s incredibly hard to deny a team that can both fill its stadium and then back up the hype against one of the very best teams in the entire nation.
How many college lax programs can put 5000 people in the stands for a non-conference game, @Inside_Lacrosse?
— As For Football (@asforfootball) March 29, 2025
Via @lynnfernphotog #GoArmy #AsForLax pic.twitter.com/Vd2qWNozgh
Army Wins!
Arguably the most interesting thing about this past weekend’s game came from how close the stat lines finished considering UNC’s possession advantage. With the continued absence of Army All-American FOGO Will Coletti, Tarheels’ All-American Brady Wombach won 19/26 faceoffs (73.1%) this past Saturday. North Carolina got the ball coming off of virtually every restart! And yet, Army finished with 38 shots; UNC had 36. Army had 21 shots-on-goal; UNC 22. Army Goalie Sean Byrne made 10 saves; UNC’s goalie made 8. Army finished with 29 ground balls; UNC had 36.
Just on the numbers, we’d expect a close game. That’s what we got. But North Carolina got the ball almost half again as often as Army did! Which really just goes to show how well the Black Knights’ defense played.
The stat lines cannot capture how effectively Army defenders pushed UNC attackers outside, past the goal, or otherwise out of position when they went looking for shots. The Tarheels barely got any looks where they could step up with their hands free. Instead, almost all of their goals came on wild wraparound plays that scored on a wing and a prayer. Each of those plays proved highlight-worthy, but taken together, they made for poor fundamentals in crunchtime.
By contrast, Army A Jackson Eicher seemed to live with his hands free throughout the game. Eicher finished with a 6-goal sock trick. He scored literally half the shots he took! M Evan Plunkett finished with a goal plus *5* assists. Plebes Hill Plunkett and Brayden Fountain each found the net twice.
That’s a lot of guys making it work on the offensive end.
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Colgate Raiders
Colgate has had an interesting season. They currently stand 6-4 overall, 3-1 in the Patriot League. They’ve been in and out of the national Top 20 all season. They lost their first two games at Penn State and Virginia, rebounded with five straight wins over Albany, a very hot Harvard team, a good team from Villanova, plus Loyola and Lafayette. So far, so good. But then the Raiders somehow stumbled against Bucknell before losing the following week to Syracuse. Last week, though, the Raiders rebounded once more to beat a solid Navy team, 14-9.
Colgate can put up some points. They dropped 19 on Albany and Harvard, 16 on Villanova, 18 on Loyola, and another 19 on Lafayette. Hell, they scored 12 in their loss to Syracuse. But they’ve given up some points, too, and have let a few games get away from them.
Senior Attacks Rory Connor and Jack Turner led the way against Navy, scoring 5 and 4 goals respectively. Connor added 3 assists. Sophomore M Liam Connor — he’s got to be Rory’s little brother given how similar the two look — added 2 more goals plus 4 assists. On the season, Rory Connor has 31 goals and 21 assists. Turner has 34 goals plus 9 assists. Liam Connor has 22 goals plus 30 assists.
All of this suggests a talented, balanced attack that moves the ball well.
Sophomore Kyle Rummel and junior Johnny Hartzell both take faceoffs for the Raiders. Both stand close to 50% on the season, though Rummel has taken about a hundred more restarts than has Hartzell. Goalie Matt LaCombe has allowed 12.4 goals/game. He’s got 108 saves this season (47.8%).
CONNOR BRO CHEMISTRY 🧬
— Colgate Men's Lacrosse (@ColgateMLax) March 29, 2025
📺 https://t.co/iI0AvkGqzz @ESPN | @PatriotLeagueHQ #GoGate | #GGG pic.twitter.com/ix1C98RTrZ
The Match-Up
Maybe the best thing about this match-up comes in the faceoff dot. Army might not be at a possession disadvantage this week — for the first time in a while — regardless of whether or not Coletti plays. With the way Army’s defense has been playing, that *should* be decisive. But Colgate remains a dangerous team with plenty of scoring threats. If they get on a run, this could become a wild contest.
With that said, this is a game that Army absolutely has to have. They made a good argument for their inclusion in the NCAA Tournament last week, and they have earned a good bit of national level attention. If they can keep the pace this week and then beat Navy next week, things may yet go their way. But both this week’s game and next week’s promise to be dogfights. Colgate and Navy both have talented teams with plenty of goals remaining this season.
Let’s keep it rolling, friends.
This Saturday’s game starts at 2:00 pm. ESPN+ has coverage.
Go Army! Beat Colgate!!!
