Army Men’s Lax has a monster game today at Yale with an unusual start-time of 1 pm for a midweek contest. Coming off season opening wins over UMass and Rutgers, the Men (2-0) find themselves ranked 8th nationally by Inside Lacrosse and 10th by USA Lacrosse.
Friends, they look really, really good.
As we wrote in our season preview article, “the Black Knights have some dudes coming back this year.
“The Patriot League picked cow M Evan Plunkett, the League’s reigning Offensive Player of the Year, as their preseason Offensive Player of the Year for 2025. They picked firstie D A.J. Pilatte, reigning two-time Defensive Player of the Year, to be this year’s preseason Defensive Player of the Year. Inside Lacrosse further picked Pilatte as the 22nd-ranked player in the country. The Patriot League picked firstie FOGO Will Coletti, the reigning Patriot League Faceoff Specialist of the Year, to be their preseason Faceoff Specialist of the Year. Inside Lacrosse picked him as the nation’s 15th-best player overall. The League further picked A Jackson Eicher and SSDM Christian Mazur for its preseason All-League team.”
Any or all of the trio of Plunkett, Pilatte, and Coletti could finish the season as All-Americans. Add in firstie A Jackson Eicher, firstie G Sean Byrne, who saved 77% of shots-on-goal last week, alongside standout plebes Brayden Fountain and Hill Plunkett, and so far, this team looks deadly. And believe me, those specific guys are just the start of this team’s talent.
Though most of Army’s “name brand” guys play on offense, the defense stood out against Rutgers. The Black Knights absolutely dismantled those guys, 9-3, last week, and honestly, the game wasn’t really even that close.
Army will face a Yale team this week that came into the season ranked 8th by Inside Lacrosse and 10th by USA Lacrosse but has since dropped to 16th/17th following an opening week loss to Villanova.
The Bulldogs boast three Tewaaraton Watch List nominees in Attacks Leo Johnson and Chris Lyons and M Brad Sharp plus ten guys picked to finish on the All-New England collegiate team. So they have plenty of talent. However, they turned the ball over 21 times last week, failed 8 clears, and lost the faceoff battle. In an otherwise close contest, those things cost them.
Army’s Will Coletti also struggled in the faceoff game last week. This game therefore marks an important moment for him to bounce back. If he does, and Army’s defense can force turnovers like Villanova did, the Black Knights should move to 3-0. However, if Yale can clean up the little things — and they probably can — we should be in for a close, back and forth contest.
Today’s game starts at 1 pm on ESPN+.
Go Army! BEAT YALE!!!
