ANNAPOLIS, Md. —  After being held scoreless for the opening 24 minutes of the contest, the Navy men's lacrosse team (6-4, 3-1 Patriot League) buckled down on both ends of the field to secure a 10-9 victory over 17th-ranked Colgate (6-4, 3-1 Patriot League) Saturday afternoon at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. Navy scored three-unanswered goals to close the deficit to one (4-3) heading into the half and then went on a 4-2 run in the third quarter to take the lead for good.

"Just a great win. I thought it was probably the best win we've had since I've been here," said fifth-year Navy head coach Joe Amplo. "I just thought it was a tough, tough Navy win. We figured out a way to win the game. It was ugly as can be. They're really good at what they do. They are an excellent riding team. We made a few adjustments and we got some things off of it, but we were far from perfect. I thought our kids just hung in there. It shows that we've got some heart and these kids really want to win."

Colgate put Navy on its heels early in the opening frame, as Michael Minicus scored in transition off a Navy turnover just over a minute into the contest. Hunter Drouin and Ryan Favaro tacked on goals to put the Raiders up 3-0 at the end of the quarter. The Mids were unable to target any of their nine shots and turned the ball over seven times over the first 15 minutes.

The Raiders' leading scorer Jack Turner gave Colgate a 4-0 advantage by the eight-minute mark in the second quarter when he drilled a 10-yarder straight up the middle.

So what was the message to the Mids after finding itself down 4-0? "Just stay with it," said Amplo. "Offensively in the first quarter, it looked pretty dire, but credit to Blake (Coach Miller) and Dave (Coach Cottle) for making some adjustments and for the offensive guys just sticking with the plan and not getting too panicked."

After 24 minutes and 36 seconds, Navy finally got on the scoreboard when Henry Tolker (Jr / A / Catonsville, Md.), Navy's leading scorer in conference play, found Tommy Hovivian (Sr / A / Dallas, Texas) cutting to the crease for his seventh goal of the season.

That goal sparked a 3-0 run by the Mids, as Tolker would punch in the first of his three goals on the afternoon and Paul Garza (So / M / Frederick, Md.) bulled his way through a double team to cut the deficit to just one at the half.

"I thought going in down 4-3 at half, I felt like that was huge for us," added Amplo "To make that ugliness in the first half only 4-3 and we've got the momentum was probably the biggest factor in that game."

Colgate wasted little time in pushing its lead back to two (5-3) when Turner scored his second of the day off an assist from Jacob Sposita just 32 seconds into the third quarter.

Navy answered 50 seconds later when Max Hewitt (Sr / M / Denver, Colo.) went top shelf on veteran Colgate goalkeeper Matt LaCombe and that game triggered another 3-0 run by the Mids. Dane Swanson (Sr / M / St. Mary's City, Md.) finished on a 10-yard crank shot via an extra-man opportunity to knot the game at five apiece (9:25) and Tolker completed the run and gave Navy its first lead (6-5 / 7:05) in the game when he tucked his shot over the shoulder of LaCombe.

The Raiders evened the score a final time when Ben Trumble used a roll dodge to get free of his defender and poked in a shot from the left side of the cage.

The Mids once again answered quickly, scoring just 34 seconds later when Jack Flaherty (So / M / Massapequa, N.Y.) found Tolker who took to the air for a jump shot and put the Mids up for good (7-6 / 2:45).

Colgate appeared to knot the game up five minutes into the fourth quarter when Drouin somehow threaded his shot past All-American defenseman Jackson Bonitz (Sr / Shrewsbury, Pa.) and goalkeeper Dan Daly (So / Wayne, N.J.) which caught the far inside post. Navy challenged the goal, a new rule to men's lacrosse this season, and the officials used replay to wipe out the goal as Drouin was in the crease.

Navy pushed its lead to two (8-6) when Swanson sank his second goal of the afternoon from 10 yards out. However, Colgate pressured Navy on the ensuing faceoff and the Mids turned the ball over at midfield where Max Yates fed Rory Connor for the transition goal just 15 seconds later.

Navy went up 9-7 on a Mac Haley (So / M / Shady Side, Md.) goal, but Drouin scored four minutes later to get the Raiders to within one (9-8) with 1:36 remaining.

The ever-steady Zach Hayashi (Fr / FO / North Potomac, Md.) won the ensuing faceoff for the Mids and after winding the clock down to 46 seconds left, both teams called timeouts. Navy put the ball in the stick of Xavier Arline (Sr / A / Wading River, N.Y.) who tip-toed the endline to get past the double team on the restart and he went straight to the goal to give the Mids a 10-8 lead with 40.3 seconds remaining.

Navy was assessed a one-minute unreleasable penalty following Arline's goal and Colgate quickly took advantage. With no faceoff due to it being a deadball penalty, Rory Connor found Drouin for the extra-man goal just 12 seconds into the penalty to pull within one (10-9) with 28.5 seconds left in the contest. Still a man up, Colgate won the ensuing draw and called a timeout. Rory Connor sent his shot wide when play resumed, but Colgate maintained possession. On the restart, Drouin looked to feed Liam Connor who was glued to the crease, but Connor was unable to pull it in and Bonitz grabbed the loose ball to salt the game away.

Navy used a balanced offensive effort to deal Colgate its first Patriot League loss, as seven different players scored goals including all six offensive starters. Tolker led the way with four points on three goals and an assist, while Haley had three points on a goal and two assists and Swanson tallied a pair of goals.

Hayashi, who left last week's game at half due to injury, won 13 of the 22 draws, grabbed a team-high nine ground balls and forced a turnover. After winning just 4 of the 9 faceoffs in the opening half, he came back to earn wins on nine of the 13 over the final 30 minutes.

Navy's defense did a solid job in containing Colgate after its initial run. Colgate entered the contest 17th in the country and second in the Patriot League in scoring offense (13.00) and was held to single digits for only the second time this year and and the first since dropping a 15-9 decision to Villanova. Bonitz and Ian McGullam (Jr / D / Centerport, N.Y.) forced 2 turnovers apiece as Colgate had 23 turnovers for the game. Bonitz now has 69-career takeaways, including a team-high 19 this season.

"I just thought defensively we played like men," said Amplo. "We played physical, tough, connected. They are a good offensive team. They are really good in transition and I really thought to hold them down, you have to stop their transition. It wasn't just the defensive box that was part of the defensive game plan. It was a team effort to try and hold them down to a number, so it was a credit to all the guys including the offensive middies."

Six players accounted for Colgate's nine goals, including Drouin with three and Turner with two. Defenseman Aidan Murnane had a strong performance as he came up with a team-best four caused turnovers, while LaCombe made 13 stops in the cage.

After enjoying a three-game homestand, Navy will be back on the road next weekend when it travels to Easton, Pa. to face Lafayette (4-5, 1-4 Patriot League). The game is slated for a 12:00 pm faceoff at Fisher Stadium and will be streamed live on ESPN+. Additionally, WNAV 1430 AM / 99.9 FM and WFED 1500AM will carry the game live with Pete Medhurst and Joe Miller on the call.

### Go Navy ###