EASTON, Pa. // The Navy men's lacrosse team (6-2, 4-2 Patriot League / 2-2 South Division) used a six-goal run that featured goals by six different players in the second quarter to overcome an early deficit and earn a 14-10 victory over Lafayette (0-11, 0-7 PL, 0-4 South Div.) Saturday afternoon at Fisher Stadium in Easton, Pa. A season-high nine different players scored goals for the Mids, including a career-best four-goal performance by starting attackman Jon Jarosz (Fr / Gambrills, Md.).

"The emotions weren't as high as they were a week ago, but I didn't expect them to be," said second-year Navy head coach Joe Amplo. "It was not a perfect game, but when we needed to execute, I felt like we did.

Jarosz paced the team with a personal-best five-point (4G, 1A) game, scoring the most goals by a Navy freshman since co-captain Christian Daniel (Sr / Owings, Md.) scored five against Lafayette in 2018. Daniel, meanwhile, finished Saturday's contest with four points on a pair of goals and assists. He moved into 22nd on the Mids' all-time career points leader board and is now just one goal away from tying for 20th on the career goals scored list.

"Jon's skills are coming along," added Amplo. "Today he played with confidence and used his size to his advantage."

The Mids' offense received an assist thanks to Jarosz's older brother Jacob Jarosz (Jr / Gambrills, Md.), who won 14 of the 21 (66.7) draws he took in the contest, and grabbed six ground balls. Jacob Jarosz (12-16) and Nick Barry (Jr / Islip, N.Y.) (1-1) combined to win 13 of the 16 faceoffs in the opening half, including 6 of 8 in the second quarter which helped ignite Navy's offensive outburst.

Defensively, Navy held Lafayette without a goal for three incredible stretches. After the Leopards took a 5-4 lead at 11:38 in the second quarter with an unassisted goal by freshman attackman Charlie Cunniffe, Lafayette did not score for 13 minutes, allowing Navy to build a 10-5 lead at the half. The Leopards scored the first two goals of the third quarter, but would find the back of the net just once over a 25-minute timeframe with a pair of 12-plus minute droughts (12:33 3Qtr - 1:39 4Qtr / 1 goal at 0:01 3Qtr).

Coming off a career day against Army a week ago, Spencer Rees (Sr / Baltimore, Md.) finished the game with 13 saves, making nine stops in the second half. Meanwhile, co-captain Nick Franchuk (Sr / Southport, Conn.) and short-stick defensive middie Colin Meehan (Sr / Chantilly, Va.) paced the team with a pair of caused turnovers.

Lafayette got on the scoreboard first when Cunniffe fought through a double team and targeted his shot at 10:55 in the opening quarter. Less than two minutes later, Navy evened the score when last week's outstanding offensive performer Joe deLyra (Sr / Brightwaters, N.Y.) picked up where he left off and drilled his shot from 15 yards out off an assist from Daniel.

Macklin Fitzpatrick and Kalman Kraham scored back-to-back unnassisted goals to give the Leopards their biggest lead of the game at 3-1 midway through the first, but Navy answered when Patrick Skalniak (So / Dallas, Texas) rippled the net following a restart.

The Leopards pushed their lead back to two (4-2) when Cole Dutton used a Kraham outlet pass and punched in a transition goal at 4:03.

The Mids went on to score back-to-back goals, including a beauty by Jon Jarosz with just four seconds left on the shot clock to tie the game at four apiece at the end of the opening period.

Cunniffe's goal to start the second quarter (11:38) gave Lafayette its final lead of the game.

With just over 11 minutes to go in the quarter, deLyra ripped a 15-yard shot, only to be denied by Lafayette keeper Ryan Ness. However, the ball ricocheted off Ness' stick and Daniel swiped it out of the air and punched it in to spark the Mids' six-goal run. In addition to Daniel, James Flannery (So / Garrett Park, Md.), Max Hewitt (Fr / Denver, Colo.), Michael Foster (Sr / Manassas, Va.), Jon Jarosz and Jack Sweeney (Jr / Glenelg, Md.) scored goals during the Mids' run, putting Navy in the driver's seat the rest of the way. Lafayette would get no closer than three goals (10-7, 13-10) for the remainder of the contest.

Seven players accounted for Lafayette's 10 goals, including Cunniffe, Dutton and John Mathes who finished with two apiece. Ness, meanwhile, made eight stops between the pipes for the Leopards.

Navy will make its first Patriot League Tournament appearance under Amplo when the third-seeded Mids make the short trip to Baltimore on Tuesday to face Loyola (7-5, 4-3 PL / 3-1 South Division) at the Ridley Athletic Complex in the Patriot League Tournament Quarterfinals. Faceoff is set for 5:00 pm and will be broadcast on ESPN+.

### Go Navy ###