ANNAPOLIS, Md. —  The Navy men's lacrosse team (3-0) used an 8-1 run over the first and second quarters to break away from 18th-ranked Towson (0-3) en route to a 14-10 win on a blustery Sunday afternoon at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. Eight different players accounted for the Mids' goals during their run and now 21 players have scored a goal in their first 3 contests.

"They (Towson) put pressure on you from the moment the game starts and they don't stop," said sixth-year Navy head coach Joe Amplo. "They went up 3 nothing, we made a run and they came right back at us. It was a good college lacrosse game. I'm proud of our guys for handling that. The theme was sustained intensity, both mentally and physically, and I thought we did that for most of the game.

"Part of it was about last year, but more about it was, you said it greatly when you said we challenged our team," said Amplo in regards to challenging his team after last year's loss to Towson. "This was a team win. Our third midfield goes out there and they get a goal for us. We roll through four attackman and we play 5 or 6 short-stick d-middies and a bunch of poles. Carter King goes in and gets a ground ball on a faceoff. It was a team win, that's what we have to be.That's what we are trying to build here is to be a very good team. We are a team and today that showed. Today was a good team win."

Towson opened the game scoring fast and furious as USA Lacrosse Preseason Midfielder of the Year Mikey Weisshaar scored a goal and dealt out a pair of assists to give the Tigers a 3-0 lead just 4 minutes into the contest.

Navy, however, would answer with three of its own, including an extra-man strike by Henry Tolker (Sr / A / Catonsville, Md.) off an assist from Jack Flaherty (Jr / M / Massapequa, N.Y.) to level the game at 3 apiece with 5:16 remaining in the opening quarter.

The tie was short-lived, however, as Navy was unable to get organized in transition as Towson leading scorer Ronan Fitzpatrick (R-Fr / A) buried his shot to give the Tigers a 4-3 advantage with 4:45 to go.

Navy's Jack Nichtern (Jr / M / Massapequa Park, N.Y.) used a beautiful swim move to duck past his defender from the right side and punch in the goal. It not only evened the game at 4-4, it sparked a 5-0 run by the Mids that would pour into the second quarter.

William Goers (Fr / A / Chester, Md.) gave Navy its first lead, a lead it would not relinquish, when he wrapped around the left side of the cage and targeted his first goal of the game. Meanwhile, the Mids closed out the first frame with a 6-4 lead when Flaherty found Roman LaRocco (Sr / M / Mt. Airy, Md.) who threaded his shot past Towson netminder Matt Nilan (R-So / GK) from 10 yards out.

The Mids scored the first two goals of the second quarter just 10 seconds apart, as Carter Ash (Sr / A / Leesburg, Va.) took Nilan top shelf and Zach Hayashi (So / FO / North Potomac, Md.) won the ensuing faceoff and flipped the ball to AJ Marsh (So / D / Reisterstown, Md.) who marched down the field to score a goal in his fourth-consecutive game and give Navy an 8-4 lead.

The Tigers were not ready to bow out, however, as they put together a 3-0 run with goals by Weisshaar, Fitzpatrick and Alex Vieni (Jr / M) to close to within one (8-7) with 8:41 to go in the half.

Navy's defense buckled down and held the Tigers without a goal for the remainder of the quarter, while Goers used a Marsh pass to score a nifty goal and Sean Gallagher (LSM / Jr / Garnet Valley, Pa.) knocked down a pass on the defensive end and headed down the field where he would score his second goal in as many games to give the Mids a 10-7 lead at the half.

There was not much offense of note on either side of the field in the third quarter, as both teams managed just one goal. 

Navy's defense was stout in the second half, as it held the Tigers without a goal from the 10:27 mark in the third quarter until 3:39 in the final frame. Meanwhile, Navy went on to outscore Towson 3-2 in the fourth quarter to seal the four-goal victory.

Goers led all scorers with a career-high 6-point performance with 4 goals and 2 assists. The 6 points are the most by a Navy freshman since March 12, 2011, when Sam Jones scored 6 points (3G, 3A) against Lafayette. It's the most points by any Navy player since the second game of the year last spring when Xavier Arline had the same line (4G, 2A, 6 Pts) against Hofstra in a 16-8 win. Goers' 4 goals are the most by a Navy freshman since March 26, 2022, when current teammate Henry Tolker punched in 4 against Holy Cross in a 14-8 win.

Flaherty also had a solid outing with a career-high 4 points on 2 goals and 2 assists. It marked just the second-career multi-goal game of his career.

Defensively, Dan Daly (Jr / GK / Wayne, N.J.) closed out the game with 13 saves. He was part of a defense that was able to shore up its game in the second half, as he made 8 of his 13 stops over the final 30 minutes and the Mids held Towson to just 3 second-half goals. With his 13 saves, Daly broke into Navy's all-time top 20 saves leader board where he currently is tied for 18th alongside Jon Higdon (1999-02) with 239 saves.

Hayashi got the best of Towson's all-time faceoff wins leader Matt Constantinides, winning 16 of the 26 (61.5) draws he took in the contest. He was particularly strong during Navy's 8-1 run between the 1st (8:38) and 2nd (13:03) quarters, where he won 7 of the 9 draws he took (Colin Shadowens lost a draw). With his performance today, Hayashi moved to within 2 wins of tying 6th-place Joe Varello on Navy's all-time wins list and is just 11 outside of the top 5.

Towson was led by Weisshaar, who finished with 3 goals and 2 assists, while Fitzpatrick and Chop Gallagher (Gr / M) scored 2 goals apiece. Nilan, who got the start in goal due to Luke Downs falling ill in recent days, made 9 stops for the Tigers.

The Midshipmen, who are looking to open the season 4-0 for the first time since 2007, will be back in action next Saturday when they make the trip to "Happy Valley" to battle #9 Penn State (2-1). Faceoff is slated for 1:00 pm at Panzer Stadium with Joe Miller calling the action on 1430 AM / 99.9 FM WNAV. The game will also be available on the B1G+ streaming platform.

### Go Navy ###