March 17, 2007
Box Score
DALLAS, Texas--Junior Nick Mirabito (Binghamton, N.Y.) scored three goals and assisted on two others to lead the fifth ranked Navy Midshipmen (6-0, 3-0 in the Patriot League) to an easy 12-2 Patriot League victory over Holy Cross (2-5, 0-4) in front of a terrific crowd of 4,482 fans at Gerald J. Ford Stadium on the campus of Southern Methodist University. The game was the first Division I lacrosse game played in the Dallas Metroplex area.
"I'm thankful and appreciative to the Dallas and SMU communities for making this a great event," said Navy head coach Richie Meade. "We are used to playing in front of a great home crowd and I thought the crowd today was tremendous."
Mirabito, who has scored a goal or handed out an assist in each of the 37 games he's appeared in, scored an unassisted goal in the first period, scored off an assist from Terence Higgins (Jr./Chappaqua, N.Y.) in the second, scored off an assist from Billy Looney (Sr./Silver Spring, Md.) in the third and then assisted on back-to-back goals by Ian Dingman (Sr./Deferiet, N.Y.) to end the third period. It's the third time this season that Mirabito has recorded a hat trick and it's the ninth hat trick by a Navy player this year.
The Mids defense was sensational all day, shutting out the Crusaders until late in the fourth period. Senior goalie Colin Finnegan (Arnold, Md.) came up with nine saves and did not allow a goal before leaving the contest with 3:46 left.
"I was really proud of our defensive effort today," said Meade. "We didn't make many mistakes. I thought the Holy Cross goalie played pretty well and kept them in the game early on."
The Navy offense also got goals from Higgins in the first, Basil Daratsos (Fr./Niskayuna, N.Y.) and Matt Guido (Jr./North Caldwell, N.J.), off an assist from Dingman, in the second, Greg Clement (Jr./Dallas, Texas), who was returning to his hometown, scored two fourth quarter goals, Joe McAuliffe (Fr./Vero Beach, Fla.) scored his first-career goal off the first-career assist from Dan Vassar (Jr./Littleton, Colo.) in the fourth and Andy Tormey (So./Syracuse, N.Y.) scored his first-career goal on a man down situation to round out the scoring.
Navy, 6-0 for the first time since 1989, will play host to Colgate in a key Patriot League contest on Wednesday at 4 p.m. at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.
