Setting the Stage
• Inside the Game: Meeting for the first time since 2017, Navy (4-3, 1-1 Patriot League) and 18th-ranked Johns Hopkins (4-3, 0-0 Big Ten) rekindle their rivalry on Friday evening at historic Homewood Field where the two will battle for the 91st time in series history. Faceoff is slated for 7:00 pm. The Mids are led by Joe Amplo, who owns a 13-8 record in three seasons at the helm of the Navy program, while Peter Milliman has posted an 8-12 record in two seasons as the Blue Jays' head coach.
• Follow the Action: Friday's contest will be broadcast on ESPN3 (must be a cable subscriber) with Chris Cotter and Paul Carcaterra on the call. The contest will also be shown on tape delay on Saturday at 9:00 am on ESPNU. Additionally, WNAV 1430-AM / 99.9 FM will carry the game live with Pete Medhurst and Joe Miller on the call with coverage beginning at 6:45 pm with the Navy Lacrosse Pregame Show. Live stats will also be available on NavySports.com(.)

Game Day Storylines
• Storied Rivalry Returns: Navy and Johns Hopkins have met 90 times on the lacrosse field in what is one of the top-15 most-played games in the history of the sport. The two programs met every year from 1950 to 2017 before the annual game was put on hold due to scheduling conflicts after Johns Hopkins joined the Big Ten Conference. The two schools 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. The pandemic once again hindered the efforts of playing in 2021. The last time the two programs met was on Feb. 7, 2017, when #8 Johns Hopkins dealt #10 Navy a 15-8 loss in Baltimore. The Blue Jays have won 5 in a row in the series and 22 straight against the Mids in Baltimore. Navy's last win at Homewood Field (9-6) was on May 10, 1969.
• Fourth-Quarter Comebacks: Navy broke a 10-game losing streak (8 under Joe Amplo) when trailing going into the fourth quarter last week in its 11-10 victory over Colgate. The Mids trailed Colgate 8-6 after 3 quarters of play and fell behind by 3 after Colgate  scored just under 4 minutes into the final frame. Patrick Skalniak (Jr / M), who scored his fourth-consecutive goal for the Mids at 10:36 in the fourth quarter to spark a 5-goal run by the Mids and propel them to victory. Prior to Saturday's win, ironically the last time Navy had come from behind going into the fourth quarter to win was on April 6, 2019, when the Mids outscored Colgate 7-0 in the fourth quarter to win 16-11.
• 1-2 Midfield Punch: Starting midfielders Patrick Skalniak (Jr) and Dane Swanson (So) have been sensational for the Mids this season. Skalniak is Navy's leading scorer with 29 points on 17 goals and 12 assists, while Swanson has turned in 21 points on 12 goals and 9 assists and is second on the team in scoring. While not unusual to have a midfielder lead the team in scoring (Ryan Wade did so in 2019), it has been unusual at Navy to have its top-two scorers out of the midfield. So rare, it's never happened in the previous 114 years of Navy lacrosse. Perhaps the closest would be in 1969 when Dennis Yatras played both midfield and attack (two-thirds midfield) and paired up with Harry MacLaughlin to lead the Mids with 29 and 28 points, respectively.
• Need a Point, Call on This Trio: Starters Nick Cole (Sr / A), Henry Tolker (Fr / A) and Patrick Skalniak (Jr / M) have produced a point in each of the Mids' 7 games this season. Skalniak has turned in a point in each of the 21 games during his career, while Cole has recorded a point in 32 of the 34 games in which he's played including each of the last 15.
• Extra, Extra: Navy scored 5 extra-man goals in its come-from-behind win over Colgate last Saturday. Navy went on a 5-goal run in the fourth quarter en route to the win, scoring its final 3 goals a man up. The last time Navy scored 5 extra-man goals in a game was on March 19, 2011, when the Mids connected on 5 of their 10 opportunities at Holy Cross.
• The Backbone of the "D": As the lone returning starter on defense, All-Patriot League close defenseman Jackson Bonitz (So / D) has served as the cornerstone to an exceptionally inexperienced defensive unit. Bonitz, who leads the team with 11 caused turnovers this season, is joined by first-year starters at goalkeeper (Pat Ryan), 2 at close defense (Kyle Fairbanks, Nick LiCalzi), long-stick midfielder (Zach Snider) and short-stick defensive midfielder (Ryan Chase, Henry Rentz, Augie Fratt).

Scouting Johns Hopkins
• Second-year head coach Peter Milliman has led Johns Hopkins to a 4-3 mark this season that includes wins over Jacksonville (11-8), Towson (18-12), Loyola (11-10) and Syracuse (10-7). Its losses have been to Georgetown (16-8), North Carolina (15-10) and Virginia (19-8). Each of the Blue Jays last 5 contests have been against foes ranked in the top 20, posting a 2-3 mark in those games.
• Five different players have produced double digits in the scoring column this season, including All-American Joey Epstein (Sr / A) who leads the team with 24 points on a team-best 16 goals and 8 assists. Just one point separates Connor DeSimone (Gr / A) and Jack Keogh (Gr / M), who have 17 (8-9) and 16 (7-9) points, respectively.
• Standing between the pipes is Josh Kirson (Gr / GK) who owns a 12.22 goals-against average and a 51.3 save percentage. Kirson started 25 of the 27 games in which he played at Ohio State before transferring to Johns Hopkins. He started the first 9 games of 2021 before suffering a season-ending injury against Rutgers.
• Five different players have taken faceoffs for the Blue Jays, however Tyler Dunn (So) has taken the bulk. He has won 75 of the 147 draws (51.0) he has taken and leads the team with 42 ground balls. The next closest in ground balls is Brett Martin (So / DM).
• Johns Hopkins has scored 6 extra-man goals on 15 opportunities (40.0), while its man-down defense has stopped 8 of the 13 (61.5) man-up chances by the opponent.

Navy vs. Johns Hopkins - The Series
• Friday night's contest marks the 91st meeting between Navy and Johns Hopkins and the first since 2017.
• The Blue Jays have dominated the series with a 62-27-1 advantage, however Johns Hopkins' amazing 36-game winning streak was snapped in 2010, when the Mids dealt the Blue Jays a 9-8 overtime loss.  
• Johns Hopkins leads the series in games played in Baltimore, 28-7, including wins in each of the last 22.
• Navy's last three wins in the series have come at home - 8-2 on 4.21.12 // 9-8 OT on 4.24.10 // 13-12 on 5.4.74.
• Nine of the last 19 games between Navy and Johns Hopkins have been decided by 1 goal, including a 12-11 double-OT win by the Blue Jays in their last appearance at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium (2.9.16). Additionally, 5 of those 9 one-goal games have gone into extra minutes.

Navy Among Sport's Winningest Programs
• One of seven Div. I lacrosse programs that has produced 700+ wins, Navy became just the fourth to reach 800 when it defeated UMBC on Feb. 15, 2019.  
• With 817 wins, Navy is the fifth-winningest team in D-I men's lacrosse history behind Johns Hopkins (1,001), Syracuse (926), Maryland (860) and Army (818). Johns Hopkins became the first men's lacrosse team to reach 1,000 wins, capturing that milestone mark on Feb. 19 in an 11-10 win over Loyola.
• Navy rekindles its longtime series with Johns Hopkins when the two meet in Baltimore on Friday evening. The two programs have met 90 times in a series that began in 1908. The Mids and Blue Jays had met every year since 1950 when the series was interrupted due to scheduling issues in 2017. They were scheduled to meet in March of 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and just a day before they were to play, college sports were shut down for the season.
• The annual Army-Navy Star Game will be played at West Point on April 23. The two program first met in 1924 and Navy holds a 62-36-3 series advantage. The Mids have won 3 of the last 4, including last year's contest in which Navy claimed a 9-4 victory in Annapolis.