PRINCETON, N.J. - The Navy water polo team used a blue collar effort on Sunday to defeat Johns Hopkins by a score of 11-10 in the third place game of the CWPA Southern Championship. Taking on the fourth-seeded Blue Jays for the third straight weekend, the second-seeded Mids used a pair of hat tricks, 13 ejections drawn and 10 steals to take the 2014 series lead over their local rivals.

Offensively, Thomas Patterson (Sr., Orange, Calif.), Lucas MacLellan (Jr., Yorba Linda, Calif.) and Carpenter Warren (Jr., Baltimore, Md.) led the way as all three Mids recorded three or more points. Patterson highlighted Navy's play in the third-place victory as he notched seven points on five goals and two assists. MacLellan registered three points on a hat trick, while Warren scored the game-winning goal in addition to his two earlier assists.

In goal, Garrett Sabesky (Jr., Lakeside, Calif.) made eight saves in the Mids' win.

"As expected, this was another tough game," exclaimed head coach Mladen Stanicic postgame. "We were ahead most of the time, but JHU kept coming. Our 5-on-6 defense won the game for us as we allowed just a single goal out 12 power plays for JHU."

Robert Sutherland (Jr., Denton, Texas) got Navy on the board first with goal at 6:52. After a Johns Hopkins' score on the next possession, Navy re-took the lead 2-1 at 5:33 off of a Patterson goal. After nearly three minutes of scoreless action, Patterson was at it again as he converted a five-meter penalty shot at 2:45 to put the Mids up by a count of 3-1. The final two minutes of play in the quarter saw each team score two goals as the Blue Jays sandwiched scores by Warren and MacLellan.

With the score 5-3, the Blue Jays tightened their deficit to one goal at 5:25. After being held off the scoreboard for a span of 5:43 going back in the first quarter, Patterson answered the call for Navy and beat Johns Hopkins' goalkeeper at 3:18 to increase the lead back to two scores. On those two goals the game would go into the halftime intermission at 6-4.

Similar to the second quarter, the Blue Jays cut the margin down to one goal as they scored at 6:56. The goal-for-goal pattern continued in the third period as the early Johns Hopkins goal was met with a Patterson score at 5:38. MacLellan gave Navy its first three-goal lead at the 4:41 mark of the third quarter. With the score 8-5, the teams traded goals as Johns Hopkins notched a tally first before Sutherland responded at 2:39. Two unanswered goals by the Blue Jays on consecutive possessions at 2:17 and 1:36 sent the game into the final period at 9-8 in favor of the Mids.

After a run of scoreless play to start the fourth, Johns Hopkins tied the game at 9-9 at 4:45. Just 23 seconds later, MacLellan put Navy back in the lead with his third goal of the game at 4:22. The teams went back-and-forth over the next 1:04 as the Blue Jays tied it up at 10 before Warren responded with the eventual game-winner at 3:18. Strong defensive possessions down the stretch made the score final at 11-10.

The Mids will next be in action at the CWPA Championship tournament on the weekend of Nov. 21 through 23. Navy's Lejeune Hall will serve as host of the three-day competition that will result in the champion earning an automatic bid into December's NCAA Championship tournament.