Army got a strong win at Colgate this past weekend, beating the Raiders 13-7. The Black Knights now stand fifth in both the USILA Coaches and Inside Lacrosse Media polls. Absent disaster over the next three weeks, Army has earned the inside track to the NCAA Tournament.
However. The Army-Navy Game is this Saturday, and that game — that rivalry — is one that often plays by its own rules.
Beat Navy!!!
Were this game not Army-Navy, the greatest rivalry in sports, played at Navy in front of some ten thousand hostile, screaming Squid fans, we would say that this is one that the Black Knights ought to win. The Mids have shown flashes this season, and they have been receiving votes in the various polls, but their overall record simply does not match up against Army’s.
Navy now stands 7-4 overall, 3-2 in the Patriot League. They have good-looking wins over High Point and Boston University, but they also have plenty of losses, too. We might expect losses to Penn State and Johns Hopkins, but Navy also dropped games to Patriot League foes Lehigh and Colgate, and they had to go to overtime against lowly Holy Cross, a team with exactly one Patriot League win in the last several years.
The Mids have a lot of guys who can score, and when they can get their offense going, they have quite a formidable team overall. Junior A Mac Haley, Firstie A Carter Ash, and plebe M Jack Ponizio all have 15 goals apiece. Haley adds 13 assists for a net 28 total points, while plebe A William Goers has 13 goals and 15 assists, giving him 28 total points as well. Junior M Jack Flaherty rounds out the top of the statistical chart with 9 goals and 10 assists. But that’s not even everybody who scores regularly. The Mids have no less than eight players with at least 11 total points this season. Indeed, ten different players scored at least 1 point against Lafayette just this past weekend.
This is not a team with just one or two guys getting it done.
As noted, when this team gets its offense rolling, they win. They’ve not lost a game in which they scored double-digit points all season. In fact, they’ve not even been in any particularly close games when they’ve gotten good offensive production. However, they struggled to score for whatever reason against both Le Moyne and Holy Cross, and with that, they let the Dolphins hang around until the fourth quarter, and as noted, the Crusaders took them to overtime.
Part of the offensive issue comes because Navy lost their starting FOGO early in the season. I think that’s sophomore Zach Hayashi, who’d won 41/74 faceoffs (56%) through the Penn State game when he went out. Since then, the Mids have used a team approach, though junior FOGO Colin Shadowens has taken the most restarts. Shadowens has won 52/93 faceoffs overall (56%), including 10/21 (47.6%) this past weekend against Lafayette. As a team, the Mids went 13/26 (50%) last week against the Leopards.
Sophomore D AJ Marsh might be Navy’s best defender. A member of the Tewaaraton Award Watch List, Marsh has caused 9 turnovers and has picked up 18 ground balls this season. Junior GK Dan Daly has allowed 101 goals against 119 saves (54.1%), though he’s been notably better over the past three games than he was through the previous four. Daly saved just 42% of all shots in the first half of March. Over his past three games, however, he saved 55.6% against Holy Cross, 62.1% against Colgate, and then 68.0% against Lafayette. Whatever adjustments Navy’s defense made after going down to the wire against Le Moyne, those helped quite a bit.
1Q 7:22 | Brayden Fountain straight to the top shelf for his 30th goal of the season and it's 4-0 Army ‼️
— Army Men's Lacrosse (@ArmyWP_MLax) April 5, 2025
📺 https://t.co/tpbHKg9R3A#GoArmy | #FamilyToughnessTradition | @PatriotLeagueHQ | @espn pic.twitter.com/Asv3E0hRyS
The Match-Up
Winning this weekend starts by keeping Navy’s offense from getting on track. This in turn starts by winning possessions at the faceoff dot and continues with Army’s defense preventing quality shots on cage. The good news, then, is that Army All-American FOGO Will Coletti came back last week, taking 20/22 total restarts against Colgate. Coletti didn’t necessarily look like his old self until the second half last week, but despite a little early rust, he finished with a respectable 11/20 wins (55%). Add in Army’s 11 caused turnovers, and really, Colgate’s offense barely had the ball late in the game despite starting the third quarter down 9-4.
The Black Knights were excellent in transition last week — as they have been all season — and if Coletti can win possessions while Army’s defense prevents quality looks on cage, they will probably stay aggressive early and often this week as well. Firstie A Jackson Eicher in particular has been deadly in unsettled situations over the past month. However, if Coletti struggles, or if the game just stays close, we might see the Black Knights slow it down a little in order to try to manage overall time-of-possession and keep the Mids offense sitting on its hands.
If Navy’s offense gets hot early, we might see a barnburner this Saturday. But if Army gets hot early, well… we’ve seen that play out several times this season already. The Black Knights have won every game in which they’ve gotten out to a multi-goal lead.
2Q 7:38 | Eicher with the UNREAL low-high for his sixth hat trick of the season 🧢🧢🧢
— Army Men's Lacrosse (@ArmyWP_MLax) April 5, 2025
📺 https://t.co/tpbHKgaoT8#GoArmy | #FamilyToughnessTradition | @PatriotLeagueHQ | @espn pic.twitter.com/v6ULwNtGpt
The Star Series
For the first time in a very long time, Army stands one star ahead of Navy heading into the final weekend of the Star Series. We’ve got Men’s and Women’s Lax as well as Men’s Tennis this Saturday. Tennis and Women’s Lax will both be at West Point. Men’s Lax is at Annapolis. Army needs to win 2/3 stars to take the series. Navy needs 2/3 to tie. This is actually amazing in a year in which the Mids won stars in Football, Men’s Basketball, and Baseball, but here we are.
As it happens, those Swimming stars turned out to be super important.
Army Men’s Tennis stands 11-6 overall, 8-3 at home, and 4-2 in the Patriot League. By comparison, Navy Men’s Tennis has gone 21-14 overall and 7-0 in the conference, but just 5-4 away from home.
Maybe the Army Men will win at Tennis, but I personally expect the series to come down to Women’s Lacrosse. #23 Navy stands 9-4 overall and 4-1 in the Patriot League. #20 Army stands 9-2 overall and also 4-1 in the Patriot League. The teams have similar records overall, but Navy managed to keep it close against Loyola while Army recently upset #4 Stanford, 12-9.
For better or worse, Army Women’s Lax has been streaky as all Hell this season. When they’re on their game, Brigid Duffy, Allison Reilly, and company are as good as literally any team in the country. They got quality wins over Rutgers and Stanford, both at home, and they lost — badly — to Loyola and Colorado, both on the road. So it probably matters that this game will be at Michie Stadium.
What matters more is how well the Army team plays. They certainly can beat Navy, and if they play their best lacrosse of the season, they will. However, if they let the Mids get off to a hot start, we might be in for a long afternoon. For what it’s worth, the team has played better down the stretch this season. Hopefully, they’ll peak at the right time and bring home glory for the Corps.
Final Thoughts
We’ve got a monster sports weekend, friends. Men’s Lax starts at 12:30 pm on the CBS Sports Network. Women’s Lax starts at 2:30 pm on ESPN+. Men’s Tennis starts at 1 pm. That one looks like it’s going to be online. We’ve also got the Army Football Spring Game starting tomorrow night at 6:30 pm.
Enjoy it all.
Go Army! Beat Navy!!!
