ANNAPOLIS, Md. // The Navy lacrosse team (2-0, 0-0 Patriot League) scored the game's first 12 goals, holding Queens University of Charlotte scoreless for better than 30 minutes (34:05), en route to a 19-5 victory over the Royals (0-1) Sunday afternoon at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. It was Queens' inaugural game as Division I member after spending the program's first 19 years among the Division II ranks.

"The first thing I want to say is I think it's a great day for college lacrosse. We have another Division I team, another Division I team playing at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium," said fourth-year Navy head coach Joe Amplo. "I'm really proud of my friend Chris Panos and his staff for the way they played. Those kids battled the entire game. He's doing the right things and it's just good to see. Coming from a program that we started at Marquette and understanding how grateful we were to get opportunities to play on big stages like this, I'm really happy that we were able to do that.

"I'm really proud of Chris and his staff for giving us a battle. They fought. The score doesn't reflect that, but that second half it was 7-5 (Queens outscored Navy) and they beat us in the third quarter. That's a testament to those kids and those guys for building a good program."

Playing its second game in as many days, Navy looked a little tired in the early stages of the game. It wasn't until the 4:24 mark in the opening quarter that either team scored, as Jon Jarosz (A / Jr / Gambrills, Md.) scored off the reset by taking his defender around the right side of the crease and dumping in his first goal of the season. Meanwhile, Navy took a 2-0 advantage heading into the second quarter when co-captain Patrick Skalniak (M / Sr / Dallas, Texas) dodged the defender and stuck his shot from 5 yards out. Skalniak has now produced a point in 31-consecutive games and has goals in 24 of the 31 contests.

Navy scored its first goal of the second frame at the 9:44 mark thanks in part to a hustle play by Keegan Houser (M / Jr / Annapolis, Md.), who ran down the loose ball and found Jack Flaherty (M / Fr / Massapequa, N.Y.) at the crease for his first-collegiate goal. It was at that point that the flood gates began to open, as Navy scored its next 3 goals in 50 seconds. Later in the quarter, the Mids had a flurry of 4 goals in under 2 minutes. Queens struggled to get the ball past midfield in the second quarter, falling victim to both offside penalties and failure to advance. Navy took advantage of those errors time and again.

Navy held a 12-0 advantage at the half, seeing 10 different players account for those 12 scores.

The Mids finally gave way to a Queens score nearly 5 minutes into the third quarter when second-year attackman Micah Stechmiller targeted an unassisted goal. While the Royals would outscored the Mids 3-2 in the third frame, it would be too little, too late to mount a comeback.

Navy improved to an incredible 65-1 when holding its foes to 5 or fewer goals dating back to 2003 and in the Joe Amplo era, the Mids are 7-0.

On the flip side, 15 different Navy players provided either a goal or an assist in Sunday's win. Thirteen different players scored goals, including four first-time scorers - short-stick defensive middie Gavin Gregorek-Ali (So / Wading River, N.Y.), midfielder Jack Flaherty (Fr / Massapequa, N.Y.), midfielder Jack Dennehy (Sr / Acworth, Ga.) and attackman Jeff Lachenmeyer (Fr / Wading River, N.Y.).

The starters accounted for just 4 of the 19 goals and 5 of the 30 points, while second-year attackman Carter Ash (Leesburg, Va.) paced the team with a career-best 7 points on 3 goals and 4 assists. Ash came into the contest with just one-career point to his credit. Meanwhile, Lachenmeyer made his collegiate debut and finished the day with 4 points on a hat trick and an assist.

A total of 53 players saw action for the Mids, including 4 goalkeepers and 5 faceoff specialists. Starter Dan Daly (Wayne, N.J.) turned aside 5 shots in nearly 24 minutes of work in cage, while 2022 starter Pat Ryan (Sr / Groton, Mass.) held the shutout through the end of the first half. Andrew Calabrese (Jr / Wilton, Conn.) and Gabe Craven (Jr / Monroe Township, N.J.) split time in the second half where both keepers would make two stops apiece.  

Stechmiller and sophomore middie Hunter Meyer scored 2 goals apiece for Queens, while graduate middie Adam Barry accounted for the final goal. William Powley and Wesley Wheat split time between the pipes with Powley making 6 saves and surrendering 12 goals, while Wheat made 3 stops and allowed 7 goals.

Navy will make its first road trip of the season when it heads to Long Island next Saturday to face the Hofstra Pride (0-1).Game time is set for 2:00 pm at James M. Shuart Stadium and will be streamed on Flosports. There will be no radio coverage for the contest next weekend due to the Army-Navy men's and women's basketball doubleheader at Alumni Hall in Annapolis.

### Go Navy ###