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Men’s Lacrosse Notebook: Academies look to close out a strong March

All three teams have winning records in the month of March.

Sorry, everyone, I’ve been a little busy with my March Madness coverage. We’re back though and the academies are rolling on the lacrosse field.

All three have picked up winning records over the last three weeks and it’s safe to say they’re playing some of their best lacrosse of the season.

Air Force will look to end its non-conference season with a 5-game winning streak, Navy will look to win its third in a row, and Army will look to move to 3-1 in Patriot League play.

We have some fun lacrosse coming.

Results

Saturday, March 5

Air Force 17, Marist 8

Lehigh 11, Navy 7

Sunday, March 6

No.12 Army 14, Holy Cross 8

Friday, March 11

No.12 Army 18, Lafayette 12

Saturday, March 12

Air Force 16, Bryant 10

Sunday, March 13

Navy 11, Colgate 10

Friday, March 18

Navy 11, No.18 Johns Hopkins 10

Saturday, March 19

Air Force 13, Mercer 10

Lehigh 11, No.9 Army 10

Schedule

Saturday, March 26

Holy Cross vs Navy – NOON (ESPN+)

No.16 Army vs Loyola (MD) – 1 p.m. (ESPN+)

Air Force vs Marquette – 1 p.m. (YouTube)

Air Force

The Air Force Falcons have been rolling! They have won four straight and will look to close out non-conference with its first winning record since 2017.

After its first win of the season, the Falcons welcomed Marist into town. This would cap the longest homestand for the Falcons this season and boy was the home cooking kind to them!

Air Force rolled the Red Foxes by a score of 17-8. Upperclassmen Brandon Dodd and Brendan Crouse tallied ten goals and five assists on the weekend as the Falcons either held the lead or were tied for most of the game.

They would follow that up with a successful road trip to Rhode Island, beating Bryant after leading the game from start to finish, 16-10. Both Brendan Crouse and Brandon Dodd picked up hat tricks again, while freshman Kyle Griffith picked up the first of his career.

Goalie Jason Rose made 21 saves in that game, earning the ASUN Defensive Player of the Week award.

To stretch their win streak out to four, Rose and the defense had an elite second half as the Falcons only gave up four second-half points in a 13-10 victory over Mercer.

Brendan Crouse went insane again, matching a career-high at six goals.

The Falcons will look to tie its longest winning streak since 2017 as they visit Marquette on Saturday. They currently sit at 2-5, losing two straight.

Navy

March is a month of madness and that’s exactly what happened at Homewood Field on Friday night. For the first time since 1969, the Navy Midshipmen men’s lacrosse team picked up a victory at Johns Hopkins.

“It is history for our guys. They’re so proud to wear the jersey and play for the guys who came before them,” said Navy head coach Joe Amplo.”I told them they had their moment, now this is your moment. Our guys really seized it tonight and I’m really proud of them for that. We grew up tonight.”

It was a back-and-forth contest that held seven ties but two late goals by Max Hewitt ultimately ended up being the difference, winning 11-10 over the 18th ranked Blue Jays.

The win would create a win-streak for the Mids as the week before, they beat Colgate by the same score. They would rally late, scoring five goals in the fourth quarter. Head coach Joe Amplo would later say that the Midshipmen were “lucky” to win that one.

It wouldn’t be a momentum kind of luck though as the week before, Navy lost to Lehigh scoring a goal per quarter in the last three, losing 11-7.

This week, Navy will look to stretch its win streak to four as they host Holy Cross. The Crusaders have opened the season 0-7 and have not played in Annapolis since 2018.

Army

Army was rolling until “Luck of the Black Knights” afternoon happened. On Saturday afternoon, Army ran a St.Patrick’s Day promotion and it wasn’t all too kind to the program.

They would open Patriot League play with two skillful wins, the opposite of luck. Holy Cross kept scrapping to make it a close game but a 4-0 second quarter gave the Black Knights a 14-8 win over the Crusaders. It was their 14th straight win at Mitchie Stadium. They followed that with an 18-12 win over Lafayette, pushing them into the top ten of the country.

“All the credit goes to our captains and our senior leadership,” head coach Joe Alberici said after the Lafayette game.”

Then came the “Luck of the Black Knights” afternoon. It was head-to-head throughout but the Mountain Hawks always seemed to hold a slight advantage on Navy, winning 11-10. The loss snapped the longest winning streak at Mitchie Stadium for the Black Knights.

Army will look to get back on track as they travel to Baltimore to face Loyola.