Midfielders Patrick Skalniak (Jr / Dallas, Texas), Dane Swanson (So / St. Mary's City) and Max Hewitt (So / Denver, Colo.) combined forces in the fourth quarter to spark a five-goal run and lead the Navy lacrosse team (4-3, 1-1 Patriot League) to an 11-10 come-from-behind victory over conference opponent Colgate (1-4, 0-2 PL) Sunday afternoon at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.

"My thoughts are we were lucky to win today," said third-year Navy head coach Joe Amplo. "I thought they outplayed us. For some reason with this team, emotionally we aren't always engaged. That's on me as the head coach to figure that out. The way we look in practice and the way we perform on game day sometimes is not the same. That's frustrating. That's something that we have to continue to point out and try to correct and try to improve. I don't think we've put together a 60-minute game yet this season.

"I give credit to Colgate. For them getting their butts kicked last week against a really good Boston team and coming down here, they handled it. They had a great plan and their kids came to play. The Minicus kid, both of them, you look at the scoresheet and their family had a really good day today. Brian is a really good player and he gave us fits."

The Midshipmen trailed by as many as 3 goals on three different occasions during the contest. The last of the three occurred when Navy had rallied early in the third quarter to tie the game up for the first time at 6-all (11:57). The Mids, however, would fail to score over the next 16-plus minutes, opening the door for Colgate to jump out to a 9-6 advantage thanks to Brian Minicus' fifth goal of the afternoon (11:26 4Qtr).

Skalniak answered 50 seconds later by scoring his fourth-consecutive goal of the contest (1:30 2Qtr / 12:43 3Qtr / 11:57 3Qtr / 10:36 4Qtr) and sparked a five-goal run by the Mids.

Hewitt, who assisted Skalniak's shot to open the run, punched in his lone goal of the game when Henry Tolker (A / Fr / Catonsville, Md.) made a spectacular pass to the second-year starter who was cutting in from the left wing.

Leading by a single goal (9-8) with 4:13 remaining, Colgate was slapped with a one-minute unreleasable penalty on a cross check and Navy made the Raiders pay. The Mids scored 2 extra-man goals in 31 seconds to take the lead for the first time in the contest with 3:27 remaining. The game-tying goal was scored when Swanson fed Skalniak for his fifth strike of the day, while Swanson scored his first goal of the afternoon from 13 yards out off a Nick Cole (A / Sr / Ashburn, Va.) pass.

The Mids capped their 5-goal run after Colgate was again flagged, going 2 men down for 30 seconds and a man down for a full minute, and Swanson scored his second in a row to put Navy up 11-9 with 1:30 to go.

The Raiders would notch the final score of the game with 12.3 second remaining, but it would be too little, too late.

"The thing that's really positive is this is the first comeback win in our tenure here when we're losing in the fourth quarter. That's really important to me. That's really, really important to me. As I told the team at the start of the fourth quarter, I said today is the day where we shift that. Any team I coach is going to be known for we are never going to give up and we're going to be fight. It may not be pretty all the time, but we are going to be a scrappy, tough team that's never going to give up. There's always a chance we're going to win. I'm really proud of the guys for figuring out a way to win today."

Six different players accounted for the Mids' 11 goals, including Xavier Arline (A / So / Wading River, N.Y.) who scored Navy's first goal of the game in what was just his second-career appearance and first-collegiate start on the lacrosse field

Skalniak closed out the day with a career-high tying 6 points on a career-best 5 goals and an assist. He is the first Navy player to scored 5 goals in a game since Tyler Perreten did it the last time the two programs met - March 7, 2020 - which coincidentally was the final game of the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Skalniak remains atop Navy's scoring leader board with 29 points on 17 goals and 12 assists. The 29 points and 17 goals are both highs for the third-year starter, while the 12 assists matches his total from 2021.

Swanson, meanwhile, finished the day with a career-high tying 5 points on 2 goals and a career-best 3 assists. The second-year starter missed his first 8 shots of the game (0-4 1Qtr / 0-3 2Qtr / 0-1 3Qtr / 2-2 4Qtr) before scoring two of the biggest goals in the game.

Nate Hammond (Jr / Lincoln University, Pa.) and Jacob Jarosz (Sr / Gambrills, Md.) combined to win 13 of the 25 draws with Hammond victorious on 11 of his 17 faceoffs. Wing man Augie Fratt (DM / Sr / Bellevue, Wash.) played a pivotal role in the Mids' success at the faceoff "x" where he collected a team-high 5 ground balls.

Brothers Brian and Michael Minicus combined to score 7 of Colgate's 10 goals with Brian scoring 5 goals and dealing out an assist and Michael contributing a pair of goals and an assist.

Rookie Matt Lacombe played a solid game between the pipes for Colgate where he made 12 saves, 3 in each quarter.

In one of the most anticipated matchups of the season, Navy and Johns Hopkins rekindle their rivalry on Friday evening at the historic Homewood Field in Baltimore. Scheduling conflicts forced the two teams to step aside from the 90-game rivalry in 2018 and '19. The two teams were scheduled to play on March 14, 2020, but the worldwide pandemic struck and the season was shut down on the eve of the game. Friday night's game is set for a 7:00 pm faceoff and will be aired live on ESPN3. The contest will also be shown on tape-delay on Saturday at 9 am on ESPNU. Additionally, WNAV 1430-AM / 99.9 FM will carry the game live with Pete Medhurst and Joe Miller on the call.

### Go Navy ###