BETHLEHEM, Pa. —  Lehigh (3-3, 1-0 Patriot League) scored twice in the final five minutes of the game to earn a 12-10 victory over the Navy men's lacrosse team (3-3, 1-1 PL) Saturday afternoon at Frank Banko Field in Bethlehem, Pa. Navy knotted the game up twice in the final quarter, but Lehigh's Quinn Armstrong targeted the game-winner just 22 seconds after the Mids tied it at 10-10, and Scott Cole, the Mountain Hawks' leading scorer, scored the insurance goal with 36.8 seconds left to give Lehigh its first conference win of the season.

After Lehigh took the early lead on the first of Andrew Kelly's four goals on the day, Navy put together a 3-0 run that featured back-to-back goals by Henry Tolker (Jr / A / Catonsville, Md.). The second by Tolker came when the Lehigh defenseman attempted to throw the ball back to goalkeeper Nick Pecora, but Tolker picked his pocket and fired in the goal to give Navy a 3-1 lead after the first 15 minutes of action.

Navy held the Mountain Hawks without a goal for over 16 minutes before Lehigh turned the tables on the Mids and went on a 3-0 run to erase its deficit. Dakota Eierman, Grant Rodny and Brian Mullen recorded goals for Lehigh to give the Mountain Hawks a 4-3 lead at the break.

The Mids needed just 19 seconds to score in the second half, as Dane Swanson (Sr / M / St. Mary's City, Md.), who scored a career-high 5 goals last week at Boston U., scored the first of his 3 goals on the afternoon to knot the game.

Lehigh, though, went on to score three in a row to take a 7-4 lead.

Navy refused to give in, as the Mids scored 3 of the final 4 goals of the quarter, including a highlight reel goal by Tolker who powered his over the shoulder goal past Pecora off an assist from Mac Haley (So / M / Shady Side, Md.), to draw back to within one (8-7) going into the final quarter.

Grant Rodny sent his bouncer past Navy goalkeeper Dan Daly (So / Wayne, N.J.) to give Lehigh a 2-goal advantage (9-7) early in the fourth, but back-to-back goals by Tolker and Swanson leveled the game at 9 apiece. Co-captain Jackson Peters (Sr / M / Darien, Conn.) saw Tolker cutting to the crease all along and hit him in stride for Tolker's fourth goal of the day. Meanwhile, Swanson scored his third of the afternoon, threading his shot past the ankles of Pecora.

Lehigh answered just over a minute later when Kelly scored an unsettled goal in transition off a Navy turnover to put the Mountain Hawks up 10-9.

Forty-eight seconds later, Haley worked his defenseman left to right, switching hands twice before finding the back of the net on a 10-yarder with 5:22 to go and tying the game a final time.

Junior faceoff specialist Sean Dow, who challenged Navy's Zach Hayashi (Fr / North Potomac, Md.) throughout the game, came up with two huge faceoff wins in the latter stages of the game, the first after Haley's game-tying goal. That win set up the game-winner by Armstrong, who scored just 22 seconds after Haley. Armstrong came up empty on his first 8 shots of the game, but made the ninth count as he curled around the left side of the goal to punch in the go-ahead goal.

Dow came up with another faceoff win to hold the Mids at bay.

With 59 seconds remaining in the contest, Navy forced a shot clock violation to get possession. The Mids struggled to clear the ball throughout the contest (16-21) and that became no more evident than in the final minute of play when the ball got caught in Daly's stick not once, but twice. Daly picked up the loose ball after the first throwing attempt, but the second would be picked up by Cole and he tossed the ball into an empty net for the insurance goal.

Tolker led Navy with 4 goals on 9 shots, while Swanson turned in his second hat trick in as many games. Haley, who has played midfield for the Mids the last 2 contests, finished with 2 goals and an assist, Peters had a goal and an assist and Max Hewitt (Sr / M / Denver, Colo.) dealt out a pair of assists.

Ian McGullam (Jr / D / Centerport, N.Y.) made his first-collegiate start on close defense and came up with 2 caused turnovers, while co-captain Jackson Bonitz (Sr / D / Shrewsbury, Pa.) played a fantastic game against Cole, the reigning Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year. Cole came into the game as Lehigh's top scorer, averaging 3.60 points per game and 3.40 assists per game and was held without a goal until the errant pass by Daly at the end of the contest.

Hayashi edged Dow and Matt Brock in the faceoff game, winning 13 of the 25 draws and picking up 5 ground balls. He is now just 7 wins shy of joining Navy's career faceoff wins leader board.

Seven players accounted for Lehigh's 12 goals with Kelly's 4 and Rodny's 3 leading the way.

Pecora, meanwhile, made 16 saves, including 12 in the opening half.
 
Navy will step away from Patriot League action next Friday when it makes the short trip to Baltimore to face long-time rival Johns Hopkins. The game is slated for a 7:00 pm faceoff at Homewood Field and will be streamed live on ESPN+. Additionally, WNAV 1430 AM / 99.9 FM will carry the game live with Pete Medhurst and Joe Miller on the call.

### Go Navy ###