Feb. 8, 2016
Game Day Storylines • #18 Navy was among 18 teams to play their opener this past Saturday, as the Mids kicked off their 109th season of lacrosse with a 10-6 win over service academy rival Air Force.
• Navy is now 5-0 in season openers under head coach
Rick Sowell. The Mids have won 15 consecutive season openers dating back to 2002.
• The Mids will play their second game of the season before 52 of the other Div. I programs play their opener when Navy plays host to #5 Johns Hopkins on Tuesday at 7:00 PM.
• The Navy-Johns Hopkins game will be carried live by 1430 AM / 99.9 FM WNAV with Pete Medhurst and Joe Miller handling the call. Coverage begins with the Navy Lacrosse Pregame Show at 6:45 PM. The game will also be streamed online for FREE via PatriotLeague.TV, while live stats will be available at NavySports.com.
• Tuesday's contest marks the 90th meeting between the Mids and Blue Jays in a series that Johns Hopkins leads, 61-27-1. The Blue Jays have won 3 in a row against the Mids, however, Navy has won 2 of the last 3 in Annapolis.
• The Mids will look to build upon their defensive success from a season ago. Navy finished the 2015 campaign ranked 13th nationally in scoring defense (8.57). Dating back to last season, Navy has held 11 of its last 15 opponents to single digit goals.
• The Mids' defense will be tasked with shutting down two of the country's best attackmen. Second-Team All-American and Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year Ryan Brown scored a school-record 61 goals and added 16 assists last season. He owns the nation's longest goal-scoring streak with a goal in 34 consecutive games. Sophomore Shack Stanwick turned in 28 goals and 23 assists last season and was the first Hopkins rookie to top the 50-point mark in better than 20 years.
• Navy returns 85.5 percent of its point production, including 85.4 percent of its goal scoring. The Mids return eight of their top nine scorers, including each of the top four.
• After winning a share of the 2015 Patriot League regular-season title, Navy has been picked to finish second in the Patriot League by the coaches and SIDs. The Mids return nine starters, including 2015 Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year
Chris Fennell.
• Navy opens the season ranked 18th in the USILA Coaches and Cascade/Maverik Media top-20 polls. It's the first time Navy has been ranked to open the season since 2010, when the Mids stood 11th.
Scouting the Blue Jays • After winning the inaugural Big Ten Men's Lacrosse Tournament and advancing to the national semifinals last season, Johns Hopkins will rely upon its offense to pave the way while an inexperienced defensive unit looks to emerge under the best defensive player the game has known, Blue Jays head coach Dave Pietramala.
• The Blue Jays return two of the best attackmen in the country in Second-Team All-American and Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year Ryan Brown and sophomore Shack Stanwick. Brown scored a school-record 61 goals and added 16 assists and enters his senior campaign with 118 career goals. He owns the nation's longest goal-scoring streak with a goal in 34 consecutive games. Stanwick, meanwhile, turned in 28 goals and 23 assists last season and was the first Hopkins rookie to top the 50-point mark in better than 20 years.
• The midfield will be led by senior Holden Cattoni who produced 23 goals and 5 assists a year ago, while junior John Crawley was the team's fifth-leading scorer last spring with 21 goals and 11 assists.
• Defensively, the Blue Jays will be looking to replace their starter in goal Eric Schneider, as well as two close defensemen, their starting pole and their top short-stick defensive midfielder. Pietramala will look to Honorable Mention All-Big Ten defenseman Nick Fields and First-Team All-Patriot League selection Ben Kellar to lead the way.
Navy vs. Johns Hopkins - The Series • Saturday's contest marks the 90th meeting between Navy and Johns Hopkins. It's the 67th-consecutive year the two programs have battled and it is the third-longest continuous series between Navy and another team on the lax field behind Army-Navy and Navy-Maryland.
• The Blue Jays own a commanding 61-27-1 advantage in the series, however Johns Hopkins' amazing 36-game winning streak was snapped in 2010, when the Mids dealt the Blue Jays a 9-8 overtime loss.
• While Navy has won 2 of the last 3 games played against Johns Hopkins in Annapolis. The Mids won back-to-back games at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in 2010 (9-8 OT) and 2012 (8-2), before the Blue Jays bounced back with a 6-5 win against Navy in the last meeting in Annapolis.
• Eight of the last 17 games between Navy and Johns Hopkins have been decided by one goal, including two of the last three games contested in Annapolis. Additionally, four of the eight one-goal games have gone into extra minutes.
• Fifth-year Navy head coach
Rick Sowell is 1-3 all-time against the Blue Jays, while Navy's Class of `16 is looking to capture its first win against Johns Hopkins.
Navy vs. The Big Ten • Navy has played more games against the six-member Big Ten Conference than any other conference in college lacrosse. The Mids own a 122-127-2 (49.0) record against teams representing the Big Ten.
• The Big Ten is made up of Johns Hopkins (27-61-1), Maryland (33-56-1), Michigan, Ohio State (5-1), Penn State (36-2) and Rutgers (21-7). Michigan is the only team Navy has not played.
• Navy has played a game against a current Big Ten opponent every year since 1927. Navy has played Johns hopkins every year since 1950, while the Mids and the Terps have met every year since 1946.
• Navy will play Johns Hopkins and Maryland in back-to-back games for just the second time in Navy's 109-year history and the first time since 1928 when the Mids dropped a 3-2 decision at Maryland on May 5 before beating Hopkins, 5-3, on May 12. The Feb. 9 Hopkins game and Feb. 13 Maryland contest mark the earliest Navy has played both of these teams.
Department of Defense • Since 2000, Navy's defense has been ranked among the top four nine times including No. 1 four times.
• Navy finished its 2015 campaign ranked #13 in scoring defense, giving up 8.57 goals per game. It's the Mids' best mark since they held their opponents to a 7.69 GAA in 2009.
• The Mids held 10 of their 14 opponents to single digits last spring - 7 by VMI, 8 by #8 Maryland, 8 by Bucknell, 6 by #19 Holy Cross, 7 by #14 Towson (3OT), 4 by Lafayette, 6 by Colgate, 6 by Boston U., 7 by #13 Army West Point in the regular season and 8 by Air Force - including each of the first five.
• It's the fewest double-figure goal games Navy has allowed since 2009 when that squad surrendered 3 double-digit contests and went on to finish 11-5, won the league's tournament title and faced Duke in the NCAA Tournament.
• Dating back to last season, Navy's defense has held 11 of its 15 opponents to single digit goals.
• Dating back to last year, Navy has held 8 of its last 13 opponents to scoring droughts of 20 minutes or more (in 2015 - Bucknell - 20:18, Holy Cross - 29:55, Towson - 24:38, Lafayette - 22:50, Colgate - 21:42, Army West Point - 23:17, Army West Point (2) - 22:46); in 2016 - Air Force - 21:41).
• Since 2004, Navy has lost 27 games when holding foes to nine or fewer goals, posting an 85-27 mark (75.9) - twice in 2005, four times in `06, once in `07, once in `08, twice in `09, twice in `10, three times in `11, three times in `12, three times in `13, four times in `14 and twice in `15.
• Navy's defense has given up double-figure goals 48 times in its last 144 games (2006-present), 50 times in the last 160 (2005-present) and 54 times (Ohio State, Army West Point, Johns Hopkins and Syracuse in `04; Georgetown and Virginia in `05; Army West Point `06; Colgate, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins and North Carolina in `07; Georgetown, Johns Hopkins 2x and Colgate in `08; Colgate, Johns Hopkins and Duke in `09; North Carolina, Lafayette, Towson, Georgetown, Maryland and Army West Point-PL Tourney in `10; North Carolina, Lehigh, Bucknell, Towson, Maryland, Army West Point and Johns Hopkins in `11; Jacksonville in `12; Fairfield, Bucknell, Lafayette, Colgate, Lehigh, Army West Point and Johns Hopkins in `13; Holy Cross, Towson, Lehigh 2x, Colgate, Army West Point and Maryland in 2014; Johns Hopkins, Lehigh, Loyola and Army West Point -PL Tournament in 2015) in the last 178 games (2004-present).
• Dating back to 2003, Navy HAD won 45-straight games when holding its foes to five or fewer goals. That streak, however, was snapped on March 26, 2011, by Colgate in a 5-4 win over the Mids. Navy has won 49 of its last 50 when achieving the feat.
• Since `04, Navy has held 57 of its 178 opponents to 25 or fewer shots and is 47-10 (Ohio State `04, Colgate `06, Maryland `07, Army West Point `08, Johns Hopkins `08-twice, Colgate `09, Army West Point `11, Jacksonville `12, Lafayette `14, Bucknell `15).
