#8/#10 Army Men’s Lacrosse beat the absolute tar out of #16/#17 Yale at their place yesterday, winning by a final score of 14-3. Yesterday’s beat-down got so comprehensive that commentary started actively campaigning for Army Defenseman A.J. Pilate to win the Tewaaraton Award around the middle of the third quarter.
Pilate utterly erased Yale All-American A Chris Lyons, wrong-footing the Bulldogs’s attack so badly that they looked like The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight. With that, the Bulldogs got almost no quality shots. The ones they did get, Army G Sean Byrne stopped — easily — finishing with an overwhelming 84.2% save percentage.
Coming into this game, Byrne had the #2 save percentage in the nation. Coming out of it, he’ll be #1.
As of this writing, Byrne has been the nation’s best goalie!
Army FOGO Will Coletti got back on form this week after last week’s struggles against Rutgers. He won 10/18 faceoffs (55%) and won nearly all the clamps, though Yale adjusted to bring their wings in and contest a few wins later in the game. Coletti won the opening faceoff and scored the opening goal just :06 into the game, and that set the tone for the afternoon. The Black Knights opened with a seven-goal run in the first quarter and never looked back.
Before the game, commentary noted that both Army and Yale have built their teams the same way — play good, physical defense, maintain possession on offense, and score enough to win games. But neither team showed that yesterday. Instead, the Black Knights dominated utterly on both ends. Sure, *Army* played good defense. However, they also played outstanding, explosive offense, scoring goals in every conceivable manner. Plebe A Brayden Fountain and cow A Gunnar Fellows both had hat tricks plus an assist while Firstie A Jackson Eicher scored twice and added 2 assists. Cow M Evan Plunkett also scored twice and added 1 assist.
For those keeping score at home, plebe Brayden Fountain has played in three collegiate lacrosse games across the entirety of his lifetime. Dude has put up a hat trick in all three games.
As commentary noted repeatedly yesterday, this Army Team is a complete team. They have great skill guys everywhere and play terrific lacrosse in every phase of the game. They have an All-American FOGO, and All-American defenseman, and an All-American midfielder. They have several guys who will at least be all-conference attackmen, at least one all-conference defensive midfielder, and a goalie who’s been legitimately the best in the nation to date.
It’s a long season, obviously. We saw that last year. However, this team can absolutely be special.
Army Men’s Lax will be down in Florida for a game against Mercer that they should win pretty handily. Patriot League play starts on March 1 at home against Lafayette.
Go Army! Beat Mercer!!!
