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ANNAPOLIS, MD. -- Second-year attackman Jack Ray (Wyckoff, N.J.) tucked his shot just inside the far post with 37.7 seconds left to lead the Navy men's lacrosse team (4-2, 2-1 Patriot League) to a 10-9 victory over 15th-ranked Loyola (4-3, 2-1 PL) Saturday afternoon at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.

While each of the last three meetings in Annapolis has been decided by one goal, it marked the Mids' first win in the overall series since 1943 when Navy scored an 8-1 victory over the Greyhounds. Loyola came into the game having rattled off five straight wins against the Mids.

"We got off to a good start, the start we wanted," said Navy head coach Rick Sowell. "I knew they would make a run in the third, maybe not a 5-0 run, however. They are a championship team and I knew they weren't going to go down without a fight. It was a character test for us and it came down to making plays. You can draw up whatever play you want, but you have to make plays. We were able to make the stop on defense and then Jack was able to make the goal. It was a nice win for our program."

Navy saw a comfortable 7-2 lead at the half erased when Loyola scored five straight goals in the third quarter, including four on four shots in the final 1:45 of the period.

The Mids regrouped and took an 8-7 lead just over a minute into the final stanza when the Greyhounds were slow to side and midfielder Casey Rees (So./Sykesville, Md.) punched in the goal from 15 yards out.

Loyola knotted the game three minutes later when junior attackman Zach Sirico's face dodge got Matt Rees (Jr./Sykesville, Md.) off balance behind the cage and he came back around to stick his shot over the shoulder of Navy keeper John Connors (Sr./Bellmore, N.Y.). With 6:11 to go, the Greyhounds took their first lead in the contest when midfielder Jared Mintzlaff caught an unsettled Navy defense on its heels and scored the goal for a 9-8 lead.

The Mids remained patient and kept to the game plan. It was co-captain Patrick Keena (Sr./A/Vienna, Va.) who would find Rees up the middle for his fifth goal of the game to tie it up for the third time with 3:29 left in the contest.

Loyola saw two point blank shots by Romar Dennis and Brian Sherlock with under two-and-a-half minutes to go turned aside by Connors who finished the game with six saves.

The Mids were able to clear the ball following Connors' second save and with time running down, the ball was put in the stick of Ray behind the net. Ray, 6-6 and 261 pounds, utilzed his size advantage over the 5-10, 180-pound Foster Huggins who tried to keep Ray in front of him. Ray swung around the left side of the cage and got his hands free to fire off the game-winner with 37 ticks left on the clock. Navy came up with the ensuing faceoff and were able to run the clock out for the victory.

The flow of the game was dictated by the statistics with Navy clearly winning the opening half and Loyola's second-half run was based upon its statistical advantage. The Mids outshot the the Greyhounds in the opening half, 16-10, while Loyola owned an astonishing 25-8 advantage in its second-half rally. The Mids dominated at the "x" in the first half, winning nine of 11 draws while in the second half the Hounds won eight of the 12. Not a surprise, the Mids held a 14-7 lead in ground balls over the first 30 minutes, while Loyola edged Navy, 16-12, in the second half.

Six different players scored goals for the Mids including Casey Rees, who turned in a career-high five goals. He has bettered his career high in each of the last three contests, first matching his high against Boston U. with three, followed by a four-goal performance at Bucknell two weeks ago. Keena contributed three assists as he moved into 18th on the Mids' career assists leader board with 49.

Ranked fourth nationally in scoring defense (7.00), Navy held its fourth opponent this season to single digits with a nine-goal performance by the Greyhounds. The Mids forced eight of Loyola's 13 turnovers, including four by senior co-captain Jules Godino (Summit, N.J.).

Junior Brady Dove (Stevensville, Md) helped put the ball in Navy's stick early in the game by winning nine of the 11 first-half draws. He went on to win just four of 11 in the second half, but with the opening draw of the third quarter, he became the Mids' all-time faceoff wins leader. Chris Pieczonka, who was a member of Navy's Cinderella team that played in the 2004 National Championship Game, held the record with 363 wins from 2002-05 (46 games). Dove has amassed 367 over two-and-a-half years (34 games).

Seven players contributed goals for Loyola, including Brian Sherlock who led the team with a pair to go along win an assist. Freshman Pat Spencer, the team's leading scorer, tallied one goal and two assists in the contest.

The Mids will be back in action on Tuesday night when they play host to Lafayette (1-5, 0-3 PL0 in a game that was originally scheduled for last weekend, but the norovirus forced the shut down of the Easton, Pa.-based college and suspended all athletic events. The game, set for a 7:00 pm start, will be streamed live via PatriotLeague.TV and will be carried on 1430 AM / 99.9 FM WNAV with Pete Medhurst and Joe Miller on the call.

### Go Navy ###