BALTIMORE, Md. —  The Loyola men's lacrosse team (3-10, 3-4 Patriot League) used a 5-1 run over the final 10 minutes of the game to pull away and post a 16-11 victory over Navy (7-6, 3-4 Patriot League) Friday evening at Ridley Athletic Complex in Baltimore. It was the 21st game in a series Loyola leads 14-7, including 6-2 in games played on its home field.

"They outplayed us in every aspect of the game. They were better prepared and they executed better," said sixth-year Navy head coach Joe Amplo. "I didn't get our team prepared well enough."

Navy jumped out to an early 5-2 lead with 5 minutes remaining in the opening quarter before the Greyhounds' Matthew Minicus made his presence known. Minicus helped spark a 4-0 Loyola run, scoring bookend goals to give the Greyhounds their first lead of the game at 6-5 with 14.5 seconds remaining in the first frame.

The Mids, however, answered on the ensuing faceoff as Graham Parker (So / SSDM / Owings, Md.) was able to corral the loose ball and thread his shot past Loyola goalkeeper Max Wilkinson with just 5.2 seconds remaining in the quarter to knot the game at 6.

While the opening 15 minutes of play featured fast and furious scoring with a combined 12 goals scored, the next 15 minutes featured just 3 combined goals.

Navy took a 7-6 lead at the 9:22 mark when Carter Ash (Sr / A / Leesburg, Va.) found Henry Tolker (Sr / A / Catonsville, Md.) who sank his shot from the right crease. That would be be Navy's final lead in the contest, as Loyola scored back-to-back goals to take an 8-7 lead into the locker room.

The Mids tied the game (8-8) for the fourth time when Paul Garza (Jr / M / Frederick, Md.) went low on Wilkinson off an assist from Ash just 49 seconds into the second half.

Minicus took over the third quarter for the Greyhounds, scoring a goal and adding a pair of assists to give Loyola an 11-8 lead heading into the fourth frame.

Ash, who played a role in each of Navy's final 5 goals of the evening, brought the Mids to within a goal, scoring back-to-back goals in the opening 4 minutes of the quarter, including an extra-man strike at 10:54.

Loyola answered less than a minute later with back-to-back goals by Henry Haberman to spark a 5-0 run and a 16-10 lead in favor of the Greyhounds with just under 4 minutes to play.

Ash went on to score the Mids' final goal of the evening, making a tremendous outstretched catch before running the ball to the crease for his third hat trick of the season.

While the statistics were fairly even across the board, Navy had no answer for Loyola's zone defense, nor did it have an answer to slow down Minicus who finished the game with 8 points on 5 goals and 3 assists. Additionally, Haberman, Mason Cook and Brady West each pitched in a pair of goals for Loyola.

Defensively, Watkinson closed out the game with 12 saves, while starting defenseman Joe Houlihan turned in 3 caused turnovers. Carson Hall helped the Greyhounds edge the Mids in the faceoff column as he won 15 of the 29 draws he took, while Sawyer Allen was 1 for 2.

Ash and Mac Haley (Jr / A / Shady Side, Md.) paced the Mids with 5 points apiece. Ash scored 3 goals and dealt out a pair of assists, while Haley scored 2 goals and dished out 3 assists. Haley has produced a point in each of Navy's 13 games this season and is now just 4 points shy of reaching 40 points for the season.

Jack Flaherty (Jr / M / Massapequa, N.Y.) scored a goal and added 2 assists, while Tolker finished the evening with a pair of goals and moved into sole possession of 9th on Navy's career goals leader board with 93.

Dan Daly (Jr / GK / Wayne, N.J.) made 13 stops between the pipes for the Mids and moved into 12th on Navy's career saves list (360), while Jack Ponzio (Fr / M / Ronkonkoma, N.Y.) led the team with a pair of caused turnovers. Zach Hayashi (So / North Potomac, Md.) and Colin Shadowens (Jr / Severna Park, Md.) share the faceoff duties where Hayashi won 7 of the 15 draws he took and Shadowens was 8 for 16.

The Midshipmen will be back in action next Friday evening (7:00 pm) when they make the trip to Lewisburg, Pa. to battle Bucknell in the regular-season finale. 

### Go Navy ###