The Navy men's lacrosse team (1-1) earned its first win of the season in dominating fashion, as the Mids shut out Mercer (1-2) 7-0 in the opening half en route to a 15-5 victory at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in what marked the inaugural contest between the two programs. Patrick Skalniak (M / Jr / Dallas, Texas) put together his second five-point performance in as many games, while co-captain Jack Sweeney (A / Sr / Glenelg, Md.) paced the team with a career-high 4 goals. Defensively, Navy recorded 17 caused turnovers, just one off the program record, while also holding the Bears to just 24 shots in the contest.

"It was a good college lacrosse game," said third-year Navy head coach Joe Amplo. "Mercer had played two tough games. We thought they were really slick on offense, their faceoff guy is one of the best in the country, they are long on defense, so we knew we had to be sharp in order to play well against these guys. I thought our guys handled that challenge really well.

"I'm proud of what we looked like in the first half. There were spurts for a long time that we looked like what Navy lacrosse should look like. I think a little let down in the second half and that's a credit to Mercer. They came out and wanted to prove something in the second half to us. I'm proud of our play early to give us enough separation that it was not in question towards the end."

The Mids got shots early and often, but it wasn't until the 8:16 mark that Navy would find the back of the net for the first time when Sweeney scored his first of the day off an assist from Dom Cole (M / Jr / Ashburn, Va.). That goal sparked a 4-0 run in the quarter that was capped off by Sam Dracobly (M / Jr / Seattle, Wash.), who wrapped around the left side of the cage and tucked his shot past Mercer keeper Colin Kelley for his first goal since his rookie campaign.

Navy carried its momentum into the second quarter where three different players scored goals, including Skalniak who owned 2 goals and 2 assists at the break.

The Mids went into the locker room with a 7-0 advantage on the scoreboard and owned a 37-10 lead in the shots column (23-3 1Qtr / 14-7 2Qtr).

After being held scoreless for over 30 minutes, Mercer notched its first goal 59 seconds into the second half when Carl Klepper curled around the left side of the cage for his sixth goal of the season. The Bears made it two in a row when Leggett, who fed Klepper on the first goal, took the shot himself to close the deficit to five (7-2) just three minutes into the third quarter.

Navy, however, shut down any thoughts of a Mercer comeback, as it scored three of the next four goals to close out the quarter with an 11-3 lead.

The Bears again scored the first two goals of the final frame, but the Mids answered by scoring the final four and held Mercer scoreless over the last 13 minutes of the contest to earn the win.

Sweeney, who has gotten the starting nod at attack in both games this season, came up big for the Mids after being held without a point in last week's opener against Mount St. Mary's. Sweeney, who scored 2 of his 4 goals on extra-man, finished 2021 tied for 11th in the country in man-up goals (6), having played far fewer games than the top five. Saturday, meanwhile, marked his fourth-career hat trick.

"He is a very good inside player, that's what he does," said Amplo about the play of Sweeney. "I was hard on him last week. I told him in front of team that he didn't do his job last week. His job is to score goals. That criticism is tough to take sometimes. But a true winner, a true champion, someone who is going to go serve our country and do great things, a Navy midshipman like Jack Sweeney is, he's going to handle that. He's going to take it to heart and he's going to do the best that he can. Today, he benefitted by his hard work and his belief in himself and I'm really proud of him for that."

Dracobly gave Navy a lift with a career-high 3 goals as a member of the second midfield. He not only scored his first goal since 2020, it marked the first multiple-goal game of his career.

Jon Jarosz (A / So / Gambrills, Md.) scored his first-two goals of the 2022 campaign, while Skalniak produced his second-consecutive game with a hat trick. The Preseason All-Patriot League midfielder has scored a point in each of the 16 games he has played since arriving in 2020, recording multiple points in 12 of the 16.

The Mids also saw Carter Ash (A / Fr / Leesburg, Va.) and Keegan Houser (M / So / Annapolis, Md.) score their first-collegiate goals.

Defensively, the Mids recorded 17 caused turnovers, the most by Navy since setting the record with 18 against VMI on Feb. 12, 2011. Starting defensemen Jackson Bonitz (So / Shrewsbury, Pa.) and Kyle Fairbanks (Jr / Potomac, Md.), along with long-stick midfielder Zach Snider (Jr / Drexel Hill, Pa.) paced the team with 3 apiece, while 11 different players accounted for the 17 takeaways. Fairbanks played a sensational game, not only holding second-leading scorer Taylor Dooley without a point, he held the second-year Canadian midfielder without a shot.

First-year starter Pat Ryan (Jr / Groton, Mass.) continued to gain confidence in goal where he made 8 saves, including 6 in the opening half. Senior Ryan Verducci (Alexandria, Va.), meanwhile, saw action in the closing six minutes of the contest, where he recorded the first-two saves of his career.

Jacob Jarosz  (Sr / Gambrills, Md.) and Nate Hammond (Jr / Lincoln University, Pa.) took all but 2 of the faceoffs in the game with Jarosz winning 7 of 12 and grabbing a team-high 5 ground balls, while Hammond was 2 for 8.

Four different players scored goals for Mercer with veteran attackman Sean Goldsmith leading the way with a pair. Leggett, meanwhile, led the Bears with 3 points on a goal and 2 assists.

Kelley made one more save (16) than goals he allowed (15), while senior draw specialist Ashton Wood once again was a shining light for Mercer where he won 13 of the 21 faceoffs he took, grabbed a team-high 7 ground balls and scored his first goal of the season.

Navy will make its first road trip of the season next weekend when it plays two games in the span of three days. The Mids will travel to Hofstra on Friday evening for a 6:00 pm faceoff before closing out the weekend with a Sunday afternoon (12:00 pm) contest against Manhattan that will also be played at Hofstra.

### Go Navy ###