ANNAPOLIS, Md. —  The Navy men's lacrosse team (5-3) used the ride to near perfection in the second half of its 8-5 victory over LeMoyne Tuesday evening at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. Tied 4-4 at the half, the Mids held Le Moyne without a goal from 1:07 in the 2nd quarter until 1:38 remaining in the contest (29:29). The Dolphins failed to clear the ball on 8 occasions, including a 5-for-11 third quarter.

"It's a good win, I don't care the opponent," said sixth-year Navy head coach Joe Amplo. "College lacrosse is not easy, especially on a Tuesday night coming off spring break, coming off the emotion of Saturday. We have not been successful here on Tuesdays. I think in my time here, I think we've only one previous Tuesday game. We just haven't been good on Tuesday. I haven't figured it out just yet.

"A few years ago, we played Manhattan and their goalie had like 50 saves and tonight felt like that. He had nine in the third quarter ... nine saves in the third quarter is ridiculous. That team a couple years ago didn't figure out a way to win that game. This team did. This team figured out a way to win and I think that's a sign of a good team. I don't think we played poorly. I think Le Moyne is pretty good. It was a dog fight. It was a good college lacrosse game. They have a script. They're really patient. They do some things and they just do them well. I give them a lot of credit. They were really well coached. Those kids played hard and they played with nothing to lose. I think they were real excited to play us and play here. That's a dangerous opponent to face especially on a Tuesday night when we are still trying to find ourselves."

Le Moyne's Owen Wilson scored the game's first goal, sending his bounce shot in from 5 yards out at the 7:05 mark in the opening quarter. Navy, however, would knot the contest with just 8.7 seconds remaining in the frame, as freshman William Goers (A / Chester, Md.) found classmate Jack Ponzio (Fr / M / Ronkonkoma, N.Y.) for a wide open 8-yard goal.

The game would see-saw until Navy took its first lead of the game on back-to-back goals by Ponzio and Mac Haley (Jr / A / Shady Side, Md.). Ponzio scored his second of the evening when he beat veteran short-stick defensive middie Dom DelPonte from the left wing and Haley took a Goers pass and fought off a pole at the crease to give the Mids a 4-3 lead.

The Dolphins, however, would even the score just before the end of the half (1:07) as Ryan Eisenmann found Thomas Berry open at the crease to tie the game (4-4) for the fourth time.

Le Moyne found itself on defense for much of the third quarter as the Mids began to ratchet up their defense, in particular on the ride. The Dolphins recorded 9 of their 21 turnovers in the third quarter. Additionally, they were just 5 for 11 in the clearing game in the third frame with the Mids forcing 5 turnovers.

"I think they tightened up and we went full-go on the ride in the second half," said Amplo. "We rode them back in that third quarter 6 times, so it just gave us extra possession. The few possessions that they had, we were playing with a rested defense. You can be a little more aggressive. I felt like we could win our matchups. When you are only playing defense 3 or 4 times in that quarter on rest, the matchups seem a little bit more manageable so we didn't have to slide that much. In the first quarter, they lived and died by the invert and they just found some openings."

Navy, who fired off 13 shots in the third quarter, scored the go-ahead goal on a sidewinder by Carter Ash (Sr / A / Leesburg, Va.) off an assist by Evan Conway (Sr / M / Charleston, S.C.). Dolphins goalkeeper Lucas Winger was sensational throughout the game, but in the third frame in particular where he turned aside 9 of the Mids' shots to keep the game within reach (5-4) heading into the final quarter.

Goers used a swim move to break free of defender Maui Wilhelm and punched in his lone goal of the night, while Ryan Landolphi (So / M / Manhasset, N.Y.) targeted his 15-yard shot from up the middle to give the Mids their largest lead of the evening (7-4) with just under 11 minutes remaining.

After nearly 30 minutes without a goal, Le Moyne was finally able to sneak a shot past Navy netminder Dan Daly (Jr / Wayne, N.J.) with 1:38 remaining in the contest.

With just a two-goal lead, Navy scored an insurance goal with 56.5 second to go when Haley scored on an empty net coming out of a timeout to give Navy the 8-5 victory.

Haley led the way with 2 goals and an assist, while Goers scored a goal and dealt out a pair of assists. Henry Tolker, meanwhile, scored his 87th-career goal at the 9:12 mark in the second quarter to move into a tie alongside Syd Abernethy (1978-81) for 10th on Navy's all-time goals scored list.

Defensively, Navy had seven players combine to force 10 of the 21 Le Moyne turnovers in the game, including a career-high 3 by Graham Parker (Jr / SSDM / Owings, Md.) and a pair by Jacob Darrow (Sr / D / Millersville, Md.).

Navy saw improvement in its faceoff game where Joey Bucci (So / West Chester, Pa.) won 5 of the 9 draws he took and Ryan Trafford (Fr / West Caldwell, N.J.) was 3 for 8. As a team, Navy fell just 2 ground balls short of recording a "Looney" as the team totaled 38 ground balls led by 5 from Darrow and Goers.

Le Moyne, who won 6 Div. II National Championships under 28th-year head coach Dan Sheehan before transitioning to the Div. I level a year ago, was a dangerous midweek opponent for the Mids. The Dolphins were led by Berry's 2 goals, while Zachary Delaney and Ethan Loun both finished with a goal and an assist.
 
Navy will have a short turnaround, as the Mids make their first road trip in a month when they face Holy Cross Saturday afternoon (12:00 pm) at Kuzniewski Field in Worcester, Mass. The game will be streamed on ESPN+, however there will be no radio coverage for Saturday's contest.

### Go Navy ###