Friends, if you haven’t been following Army Lacrosse this season, then you missed one Hell of an exciting weekend. Army Men’s and Women’s Lacrosse swept Navy, winning both stars and securing victory in the Star Series for the first time in *11* years!
Navy, Beaten
The Women beat the Hell out of Navy, winning 17-12 in a game that probably wasn’t as close as that score indicates. Army’s Women got out to a 7-1 lead in the first quarter and never looked back. Cow A Allison Reilly finished with a whopping 6 goals and 2 assists. Firstie M Gabrielle Mirak had a hat trick. Cow M Brigid Duffy finished with a goal, an assist, 4 ground balls, 4 caused turnovers, and 9 draw controls.
The Men’s game had a lot more drama. The game went back and forth through the first half, but Army looked like they might take control in the third quarter, going up by as many as three goals. But the Mids fought back, evened the score, and then proceeded to take a two-goal lead late into the game’s fourth period. Then M Evan Plunkett — who’d been quiet throughout most of the contest — scored twice to force overtime, and firstie A Jackson Eicher scored the game-winner in extra time.
That final possession showed exactly what Army wants to do in these kinds of high-leverage moments. They came out and took a quick shot from A Gunnar Fellows, backed up so that they retained possession when the shot went wide. The team then worked the ball around until either Eicher or Plunkett could draw a short stick defender coming off a defensive slide. Eicher got that match-up coming out from behind the cage and attacked immediately, scoring the game-winner after beating his man one-on-one.
The Black Knights got their best play out of their best players when they needed it most. That’s why they won. As fans, we got an incredible game and an awesome Star Series win.
Let’s note that while the Men had their best stuff when it counted, they nevertheless left themselves some room to improve over the next few weeks. Goalie Sean Byrne made just 6 saves against 11 goals allowed (35.3% save percentage). Eicher shot 3-for-15 from the field. Plunkett went 3-for-11, including a miss against a wide open net. Fellows went 2-for-9, including a doorstep miss one-on-one against the goalie. I don’t know how strongly I believe those kinds of things will happen again. If there’s a rematch, we might reasonably hope to see much more consistent performances across the board.
With that said, FOGO Will Coletti looks like he’s gotten back on form. Coletti won 17/23 faceoffs down in Annapolis. Backup Robert Simone won the single faceoff in overtime. All those faceoff wins really mattered in this one.
Found our way 😤#GoArmy | #FamilyToughnessTradition pic.twitter.com/hUMqpo9RuZ
— Army Men's Lacrosse (@ArmyWP_MLax) April 15, 2025
Looking Forward
With this weekend’s wins, Army’s Men have risen to #4 in both polls. Army’s Women now stand #19 in the Inside Lacrosse media poll and the IWCA poll. The USA Lax Coaches Poll has them at #17. Absent some kind of late season collapse, both the Men’s and Women’s teams appear to have a reasonable path to their respective NCAA Tournaments.
The Men face Bucknell (5-7, 2-4 in the Patriot League) at noon this Saturday. The Women face Holy Cross (8-5, 4-2 in the Patriot League) on Wednesday, followed by Bucknell (6-7, 2-4 in the Patriot League) in the second half of a Michie Stadium lax double-header Saturday afternoon.
Lynn Fern’s epic photobook is up on our Patreon page.
Candidly, both teams ought to win their games. Holy Cross has a solid Women’s team with a winning record both overall and in the Patriot League. However, Army’s Women have played their best lacrosse of the season over the course of the past few weeks. They need to continue rounding into form in order to get where they want to go as a group this season.
Army Football’s Black & Gold Game
Army’s Black & Gold Game took place last Friday night. We met some friends in the stands and had photographer Lynn Fern on the field taking pictures.
Rising firstie QB Dewayne Coleman (5’10”; 190 lbs) ran with the #1s. He took most of his snaps from under center in his first series. He took more out of the shotgun in his second series.
Just based on who was taking snaps where, we think maybe the offense is easier to run out of the shotgun and more challenging from under center. But maybe that’s based on experience since not a lot of high schools run under center offenses. Regardless, Coleman was the only guy to take anything like a lot of snaps under center, and he was maybe 50/50 overall.
We’ve got many more pics from the incomparable Lynn Fern up on Patreon.
Rising cow QB Cale Hellums (5′ 10″; 203 lbs) looks like the current #2. He took some snaps under center. Most of his snaps came out of the shotgun. He’s not a big guy — he’s almost exactly the same size that Kelvin Hopkins was — but he’s an explosive runner and looked good when he broke into space.
Rising yearling QB Ethan Washington (6’1″; 190 lbs) looks tall and quite slender, but he has the best arm we think we’ve ever seen on an Army quarterback. Washington throws easy 25- to 30-yard strikes with a very flat trajectory. This indicates a strong arm, especially when added to his languid throwing motion. Every other quarterback on the roster had to really step into those throws. Washington flicked it, and it was there. He looked quite impressive throwing the football.
Though Washington came to the line several times under center, he actually worked exclusively out of the shotgun. He made good decisions in the offense, though it’s admittedly tough to evaluate triple-option quarterbacks in a non-contact scrimmage. Future Heisman finalist Bryson Daily looked awful in this game last year, for example. But Washington was quick to pull the ball down and run when the throw wasn’t there. He also threw the ball away several times when he got in trouble in the backfield. Not every Army quarterback has had that habit.
Washington converted a 1st & 30 following a couple of offensive penalties with a 19-yard throw and a couple of handoffs. He also dropped one right in the bucket downfield to SB Noah Short, though Short couldn’t hang on. That should have been an easy touchdown.
Rising yearling FB Briggs Bartosh looked really good. He had arguably the best performance of anyone on the field. He’s not a huge guy, but he’s got a lot of wiggle. Looked quick to the hole and elusive. Bartosh broke a LOT of tackles Friday night.
WR Liam Fortner has become the clear #1 receiver. He looked really good. Had several catches, and we didn’t see him drop anything.
Rising yearling P Matthew Faulk dropped a punt on the 4 yard line. Despite a fairly deep roster at punter, Faulk could push for playing time. Maybe this sounds a little silly, but the battle for starting punter could get quite heated this summer.
Numerous guys hit field goals effectively from reasonable collegiate distances all night long. All those kicks looked both routine and effective. We saw no less than four nice long field goals right down the middle.
The FG unit for Team Black were a perfect 3-for-3 in the Spring Game with Dawson Jones hitting 2 FGs and Jake Hulstein one in the first half. 🫡 pic.twitter.com/6KOoUXbFYH
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) April 15, 2025
The offensive line took a lot of injuries over the summer, and just generally, the Staff wasn’t taking too many chances out there. We didn’t see FB Hayden Reed at all, for example.
But why play Reed? He’s a known quantity.
With that said, SB Noah Short played kind of a lot. So who knows? We didn’t expect to see Short at all, but he was most definitely out there.
We also saw decent turnout considering the weather forecast. We got maybe 1000 people in the stands on a cold night with rain expected. A Lot filled all the way up. So Army Football remains a hot commodity locally in and around the Hudson Valley.
That’s all we’ve got this week. Women’s Lax starts tonight at 6:30 pm.
Go Army! Beat Holy Cross!!! Beat Bucknell!!!
