ANNAPOLIS, Md. // Jon Jarosz (M / Jr / Gambrills, Md.) scored 3 goals and added a pair of assists to lead the Navy men's lacrosse team (7-6, 4-2 Patriot League) to a 9-6 victory over Lafayette (5-8, 2-5 Patriot League) Saturday afternoon at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. The win extended the Mids' winning streak to four in a row, their longest since winning five-straight games in 2018.

After a two-hour weather delay that wreaked havoc throughout the East Coast, Navy came out of the locker room with the hot hand. The Mids quickly opened a 3-0 lead, scoring a pair of goals in the first two-and-a-half minutes of the contest. Jarosz scored the game's first goal (13:28) when he aggressively dove along the crease to give Navy a lead it would never lose.

Just a minute after Jarosz's goal, Paul Garza (M / Fr / Frederick, Md.) threaded a beauty past Lafayette rookie goalkeeper Joe Doherty from 10 yards out. All-American defenseman Jackson Bonitz (Jr / Shrewsbury, Pa.) closed out the early run by the Mids when he went coast-to-coast and the pole punched in his first goal of the 2023 campaign and third of his career.

The Mids nearly held the Leopards scoreless in the opening quarter, but a wrap-around shot by Riley Sullivan (So / A) made its way past Navy netminder Pat Ryan (Sr / Groton, Mass.) to the far post with just 40.4 seconds remaining in the first frame.

Navy pushed its lead to three (4-1) on a Tommy Hovivian (A / Jr / Dallas, Texas) back-handed bounce shot at 11:21 in the second quarter, but the Mids' sticks would go cold over the next 10 minutes while Lafayette's began to warm up.

All-Patriot League attackman Peter Lehman put the Leopards on his shoulders and scored back-to-back goals a little more than a minute apart to trim the Mids' lead to one (4-3) with 3:02 remaining in the half.

Navy, though, would get the final tally of the half when Jarosz used a Sam Dracobly (M / Sr / Seattle, Wash.) pick to create space and time for his hands to get free for an 8-yard goal to give the Mids a 5-3 lead at the break.

The Mids pushed their lead back to three in the early minutes of the third quarter when Max Hewitt (M / Jr / Denver, Colo.) went top shelf and drilled his 12-yard shot off an assist from Jarosz.

Once again, Lafayette fought its way back, this time it was Kalman Kraham (Jr / A) who scored back-to-back goals to get the Leopards back to within one heading into the final quarter.

Navy, who is now 22-1 when leading after the third quarter in the Joe Amplo era, answered the challenge, as Garza sparked a three-goal run by the Mids to open the fourth quarter. Jarosz set up the Garza goal at 11:17 before answering with his third goal of the game off an assist from Mac Haley (A / Fr / Shady Side, Md.). Just a minute later, Haley capped the 3-0 run with his first goal of the contest and gave the Mids their largest lead of the game at 9-5.

Lafayette, who was without a goal since the 4:48 mark in the third quarter, finally stopped Navy's run with a goal by John Mathes with just 59.8 seconds remaining in the contest.

Navy now owns a 22-2 record all-time against Lafayette, including wins in each of the last 5 meetings.

Jarosz equalled his career high with 5 points (at Lafayette, 5.1.21), while Haley turned in a 3-point performance that featured a pair of assists. He now stands tied for 10th on the Mids' single-season freshman assists leader board alongside teammate Henry Tolker (A / So / Catonsville, Md.), who dealt out 11 assists a year ago. Garza, meanwhile, finished with a career-high 2 goals in what was his second-career multiple point game. He has recorded 3 goals and 3 assists in the last 3 contests.

Defensively, Navy put together another smothering performance that held the Leopards to their second-fewest goals of the season and the fewest since their second game of 2023 (14-5 loss vs. Delaware). Ryan, who was named the Patriot League Goalkeeper of the Week and the USILA Div. I National Team of the Week, made 6 saves in the win.

Both the offense and defense received a noted boost from the faceoff game which saw Navy win 14 of the 18 draws, 7 in each half. Anthony Ghobriel (So / Dallas, Texas) had his most successful outing in terms of winning percentage, winning 14 of the 16 draws (87.5) he took in the contest. With his 140 wins this spring, he stands ninth on Navy's all-time single-season faceoff wins list.

Lehman and Kraham led Lafayette with 2 goals apiece, while Doherty made 12 stops in goal.

Navy will be back in action next Saturday when it plays host to the annual Star Game against archrival Army (9-2, 6-0 Patriot League). CBS Sports Network will televise the contest from Navy-Marine-Corps Memorial Stadium beginning at 7:00 pm with Chris Lewis and Evan Washburn calling the action. Additionally, WNAV 1430 AM / 99.9 FM and WFED 1500 AM will carry the game live with Pete Medhurst and Joe Miller on the call.

### Go Navy ###