WEST POINT, N.Y. —  The Army men's lacrosse team (9-2, 4-2 Patriot League) outscored Navy (7-5, 4-2 PL) 6-1 over the final 10 minutes of regulation to earn a 13-8 victory over Navy in the annual Star Game played Saturday afternoon at Michie Stadium in front of an announced crowd of 10,400 fans. It was the Black Knights' first win against the Midshipmen at Michie Stadium since 2014, snapping a three-game winning streak by Navy in games played at West Point.

"Congratulations to Army. What a great game that was," said fifth-year Navy head coach Joe Amplo. "I just told my guys I'm so proud of them. It was a great lacrosse game. That third quarter was Army-Navy to the "t." As I told our guys in the locker room, what it came down to was they just executed a little bit better than we did when it mattered. Specifically in the first quarter when they stretched us a little bit. When they got it to 7-2, it was a key moment, and then in the fourth quarter, we had some errors in our substitutions where we gave them some possessions which was unfortunate because maybe it goes a little bit differently. They deserved to win today."

Army jumped out to an early 3-0 lead against the Mids with All-Patriot League midfielder Evan Plunkett playing a role in all three goals. Despite what looked to be a forced turnover by Jackson Bonitz (Sr / D / Shrewsbury, Pa.), the officials ruled Bonitz last tipped the ball that sailed out of bounds and put the ball back into the sticks of the Army offense. Just seconds later, Plunkett found Bailey O'Connor cutting across the middle of the field where he would catch the ball and turn to score the game's first goal at 8:05 in the first period.

Just over a minute later, Plunkett was "Johnny on the spot," picking up an errant pass just a few feet directly in front of the crease and punching it in to give Army a 2-0 advantage. The Black Knights made it three in a row when Plunkett found leading scorer Jackson Eicher all alone 5 yards out for the goal.

Navy would get on the board before the end of the quarter, however, as Xavier Arline (Sr / A / Wading River, N.Y.) found classmate Jon Jarosz (Sr / A / Gambrills, Md.) planted on the right half of the crease on a restart, scoring the goal with 25.5 seconds to go.

Army pushed its lead to three once again when Navy goalkeeper Dan Daly (So / Wayne, N.J.) turned aside a shot by Eicher and fought for a ground ball that would go behind the goal and subsequently left the cage unguarded. Reese Burek eventually picked up the ground ball and found Eicher for the open net goal at 10:22 in the second quarter.

Navy answered just over a minute later when co-captain Jackson Peters (Sr / SSDM / Darien, Conn.) used a failed clear by Army to draw the Mids back to within two with his ninth goal of the season.

The Black Knights went on to score three goals by three different players over the span of 42 seconds, including a strike by faceoff standout Will Coletti who won the draw outright and raced to the goal to put Army up 7-2 with 7:14 remaining in the half.

Navy, however, closed out the half on a 4-0 run that was triggered at 4:52 with a goal by Max Hewitt (Sr / M / Denver, Colo.) off an assist by Henry Tolker (Jr / A / Catonsville, Md.). Navy won the ensuing faceoff and Jarosz beat his defender from 10 yards out, sweeping through the middle of the box.

Zach Hayashi (Fr / FO / North Potomac, Md.) won another draw for the Mids and Colletti was assessed a holding penalty to give Navy a man advantage. With the just second remaining a man up, Mac Haley found Carter Ash (Jr / A / Leesburg, Va.) for just the ninth extra-man goal by the Mids this season.

Navy went into halftime down just one (7-6) thanks to the patience of Jarosz and the Navy offense. After a Navy-called timeout, Jarosz stood behind the cage as time ran down and with 6.2 seconds remaining he curled around the left side of the goal and threaded in his third goal of the day on an incredible shot that virtually had no angle.

The two teams played a rare scoreless third period that saw Navy outshoot Army 14-5 and one that also featured outstanding goalkeeper play by both teams. Daly made 3 stops on Army's 5 shots, while Sean Byrne turned aside 9 of Navy's 14 shots in the quarter.

Navy would tie the game (7-7) at 11:09 in the fourth quarter when Hewitt danced his way through a double team and a late slide to record his second goal of the day.

Army scored the go-ahead goal as the shot clock hit zero with fifth-year Paul Johnson, who has been sidelined the entire year with an injury, sinking the buzzer beater off a Ryan Sposito assist.

The Mids looked to have evened the game once again when Jarosz dove away from the goalkeeper and his shot found its way past Byrne. After a video review, the officials ruled Jarosz's foot was on the line of the crease, therefore erasing the equalizer. Army, meanwhile, used that momentum and rattled off four-consecutive goals over a five-minute span to push its lead back to five (12-7) with four minutes remaining.

Jarosz tried to spark the Mids with his fourth goal of the day at 2:47, but Eicher secured the win with an open-goal strike with 30 seconds remaining to lead Army to the Star Game victory.

Jarosz led the way with a career-high tying for goals (Lafayette 2021), while Hewitt inched closer to 100 points with a pair of goals. He needs just two points to become the 37th player in program history and 11 midfielder to reach 100-career points.

Daly played a solid game between the pipes where he recorded 14 saves.

Army had three players finish the day with hat tricks - Eicher, Plunkett and Gunnar Fellows - while Burek had a goal and three assists. Byrne recorded 19 saves in what marked just his third save of his career, while allowing all eight Navy goals.

Perhaps the biggest matchup of the game was at the center of the field between Coletti, ranked #2 nationally in faceoff winning percentage, and Hayashi, the #2 draw specialist in the Patriot League. Coletti edged Hayashi by one, 13-12, and added a game-high eight ground balls, a goal and an assist.

"Will Coletti is as impactful a player as you will see in college lacrosse," said Amplo. "He's a very, very good player. I know the way that faceoffs are statted I kind of disagree with and I think when we do our adjusted faceoff efficiency, we are going to find they were in control of that part of the game today."

Meanwhile, Hayashi now has 151 faceoff wins on the year which is the ninth-best single-season mark in Navy history and he needs 13 more wins to break the Mids' all-time freshman faceoff wins mark set by Brady Dove (163) in 2014.

Navy, who will play its final two regular-season games of the season at home, takes on Loyola (6-6, 4-2 PL) Friday evening (7:00 pm) at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in a game that will be televised live by CBS Sports Network. Additionally, WNAV 1430 AM will carry the game live with Pete Medhurst and Joe Miller on the call.

With two weeks remaining in conference action, Navy and Loyola are among six teams (Boston U., Colgate, Army, Lehigh) who are currently 4-2 in the Patriot League and tied for first place.

"It's the most underrated league in the country," said Amplo. "You've got staffs at every institution that work their tail off, you've got good players, you've got really good teams that play really hard. It's an underappreciated league. It's a testament to the league itself, it's a testament to the coaches in the league and the commitment truthfully from the institutions to make lacrosse important. I'm proud to be part of it, I really am. I'm proud to be part of the Patriot League. It's great to see other teams beating some teams that get a little bit more recognition and the next two or three weeks are going to be a battle, it's going to be fun. Today is a two-hour instance in time that unfortunately these guys will remember for the rest of their lives, but it won't define our season. Our season will be defined by how we respond to this and how we finish off here in April and hopefully into May."

### Go Navy ###