Setting the Stage
• Inside the Game: The Navy men's lacrosse team (2-0, 0-0 Patriot League) will play host to 18th-ranked Towson (0-2, 0-0 Coastal) Sunday afternoon at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. Faceoff is slated for 12:00 pm. Navy is led by Joe Amplo, who has put together a 37-26 record in his 6 seasons at the helm of the Navy program, while Towson's Shawn Nadelen has amassed a 115-88 record in his 14 years as the Tigers' head coach. 
• Follow the Action: Sunday's contest will be streamed on ESPN+ (subscription based) and will also be carried live on 1430 AM / 99.9 FM WNAV with Joe Miller on the call. Radio coverage begins at 11:45 am with the Navy Lacrosse Pregame Show. Live stats will also be available on NavySports.com(.) 

Countdown to Faceoff
10 - Henry Tolker (Sr / A) is 6 goals shy of becoming only the 10th player in school history to reach the 90-goal milestone. Additionally, he is just 3 goals shy of moving into the top 10 of Navy's all-time goal scorers list. 
9 - Under Joe Amplo's guidance, Navy has won 9 one-goal games since his arrival in 2020, including each of the last 5. 
8 - Navy is ranked among the top 10 in 4 statistical categories, including 8th in scoring offense (18.00 GPG) and 8th in assists per game (11.0)
7 - 2024 Patriot League Rookie of the Year and 2025 Preseason All-American Zach Hayashi (So / FO) stands 7th on Navy's career faceoff wins leader board (231-405 / 57.0). He is 37 wins outside of the top 5.
6 - Dan Daly (Jr), a 2024 Second-Team All-Patriot League selection, made the 6th-most single-season saves in program history last spring with 191. It's the most by a Navy netminder since Mickey Jarboe's 215 saves in 1999.
5 - Navy is the 5th-oldest (118th year) and 5th-winningest (839-390-14) program in NCAA Div. I men's lacrosse history.
4 - Navy graduated 17 players off last year's team and returns just 4 starters (A / M / D / GK) - Henry Tolker (Sr / A), Mac Haley (Jr / M), Ian McGullam (Sr / D) and Dan Daly (Jr / GK). 
3 - During the Joe Amplo era, the Mids have lost just 3 games when leading at the half (28-3). Navy has won 12-consecutive games when holding the lead at the break, including both games this spring. 
2 - Starting defenseman AJ Marsh (So) has scored in goal in each of Navy's first-two games of the season, extending the Mids' streak of having a pole (D or LSM) score at least one goal in every season dating back to 1994.
1 - Nine Navy players scored their 1st-career goals in last week's win over Iona - Joey Bucci (So / FO), Matt Byrnes (So / A), Aydan DiRocco (Fr / M), Sean Gallagher (LSM / Jr), William Goers (Fr / A), Alec Gregorek (Fr / A), Liam Hurley (So / M), Race Ripley (Jr / A) and Andrew Ross (Jr / M).

Scouting Towson
• In his 14th season leading the Towson lacrosse program, head coach Shawn Nadelen's Tigers are off to a 0-2 start. The #18/16 Tigers dropped a one-goal decision (11-10) to then #8 Johns Hopkins in the opener and are coming off an 18-7 loss at the Dome against #2 Syracuse this past Monday.
• Towson is the preseason favorite in the CAA, earning 6 of the 8 first-place votes and 48 points to top Delaware (44 pts).
• Towson returns 7 of its top-10 scorers from a year ago, including USA Lacrosse Preseason Midfielder of the Year Mikey Weisshaar (Jr / M). Weisshaar led the Tigers in goals a year ago with 42, while adding 19 assists. He produced at hat trick in 8 of the 17 games. In Towson's 2 games this season, he has scored 3 goals on 17 shots and added an assist. Also returning is Joaquin Villagomez (33G, 12A), although the 3rd-year attackman did not play in either of the first two games.
• Ronan Fitzpatrick (R-Fr / A) is atop Towson's scoring leader board with 8 points on a team-high 7 goals and an assist, while Chop Gallagher (Gr / M) has 6 points on a goal and a team-best 5 assists.
• The Tigers also return faceoff specialist Matt Constantinides (Sr) who won 205 of the 358 draws (57.3) he took last spring. He is just 14 of 40 (35.0) this season. Additionally, he is just 10 wins shy of tying and 11 from breaking the program's all-time faceoff wins record held by Alex Woodall (583 / 2017-19). He is 3 ground balls shy of tying Matt Eckerl (307 / 2004-07) for 2nd on Towson's all-time ground balls list and trails record holder Alex Woodall (351 / 2017-19) by 47.
• Luke Downs (Sr) is in his 2nd season as the starting goalkeeper for the Tigers. He has made 22 saves vs. 29 goals allowed for a 43.1 save percentage and a 14.50 goals-against average.

Navy-Towson Series
• Sunday's contest between Navy and Towson marks the 16th game in the series and just the 2nd meeting since 2015.
• Navy holds a narrow 8-7 series advantage, however, the Mids have won 6 of the 7 games played on their home field (13-9 in 1975 / 12-2 in 1992 / 13-12 in 1994 / 9-8 in 1996 / 14-11 in 2011 / 8-7 (3OT) in 2015). Their lone loss was an 8-7 decision on March 12, 2013.
• The inaugural meeting was won by Navy, 13-9, but a regular series was not set up until the 1991 campaign. Navy and Towson met seven-straight years before the series stalled out. The series was picked back up in 2010, but again ended following a triple-overtime win by the Mids in 2015.
• This will be just the 2nd time Navy's Joe Amplo has played Towson as a head coach (Navy or Marquette). Towson head coach Shawn Nadelen, meanwhile, is 3-2 against the Mids, beginning his head coaching career in 2012. As an All-American defenseman at Johns Hopkins, he was 4-0 against Navy.
• The winning team has reached double digits in 11 of the 15 meetings, including 6 of the last 8 contests.

Program Ties
• Mark Goers (1993-95), the Director of Lacrosse Operations who has been with the Navy lacrosse program since 2002, is a 1995 graduate of Towson. 
• A member of the school's hall of fame and a 1994 Third-Team All-American, he is the Tigers' all-time leader in career faceoff winning percentage (70.2) and also holds the record for single-season ground balls per game (10.58 / 1994). 
• He stands 6th on Towson's career faceoff wins list with 375 and 5th on the career ground balls list with 274.  
• Additionally, he holds 2 of the top-3 single-season faceoff winning percentage marks in Towson history, winning 77.9 percent of the draws in 1994 and 67.9 percent his senior year.

Iona Takeaways
• Navy dealt first-year program a 22-9 loss in the Mids' home opener last weekend.
• It's the first time Navy has scored 20 goals since defeating VMI 21-7 on Feb. 8, 2015 and it's the most goals scored  by the Midshipmen since they defeated Holy Cross 23-5 on April 18, 2004. 
• Fifteen different players scored goals for the Mids, including 9 who recorded their 1st-career goals. In total, 19 players finished the contest with at least one point.
• The 9 Navy players who scored their 1st-career goals last weekend included Joey Bucci (So / FO), Matt Byrnes (So / A), Aydan DiRocco (Fr / M), Sean Gallagher (LSM / Jr), William Goers (Fr / A), Alec Gregorek (Fr / A), Liam Hurley (So / M), Race Ripley (Jr / A) and Andrew Ross (Jr / M).
• Race Ripley (Jr / A) not only scored his 1st-collegiate goal, he finished the game with 4 goals and an assist.
• William Goers (Fr / A) produced a career-high 4 points on 2 goals and 2 assists in just his 2nd-career appearance.
• Defensively, Navy's 5 goalkeepers combined for 10 saves, led by George Vlahos' (Fr) 6 stops, the first of his young career.
• Navy set game-high marks for the Amplo era in points (22G-14A=36Pts), goals (22), assists (14), faceoff wins (tied 22), faceoff attempts (35) and shots (66).