Setting the Stage
• Opening Draw: Navy (1-0, 0-0 Patriot League) will make the 45-minute drive north to battle 17th-ranked Towson (0-1, 0-0 CAA) on Saturday at Johnny Unitas Stadium. Faceoff is slated for 12:00 pm. Navy is led by Joe Amplo, who has put together a 44-33 record in his 7 seasons at the helm of the Mids' program, while Towson's Shawn Nadelen has amassed a 126-93 record in his 15 years as the Tigers' head coach. Saturday's contest marks the 17th meeting (Navy leads 9-7) between the two programs in a series that dates back to 1975.
• Follow the Action: The game will be televised by Monumental Sports Network and streamed on FloCollege (subscription based) with Spiro Morekas and Glenn Smith on the call. There will be no Navy radio coverage. Live stats will be available on NavySports.com(.) 

Countdown to Faceoff
10    Dan Daly (Sr / GK) is 46 saves away from tying John Connors (417 / 2013-16) for 10th on Navy's all-time saves list. 
9    Navy is ranked 9th in the country in scoring defense (7.00), holding Iona to just 7 goals in the opener. The defense held the Gaels scoreless for nearly 40 minutes (39:50) between the 1st (0:12) and 4th quarters (5:22).
8    Mac Haley (Sr / A) needs just 8 points to become the 39th player in program history to reach 100 points for his career.
7    Zach Hayashi (Fr / A) is ranked 7th nationally and 1st in the Patriot League in ground balls per game (9.00) after picking up 9 in the Mids' opener.
6    William Goers (So / A) was sensational against Towson a year ago, producing 6 points on 4 goals and 2 assists in just his 3rd-career game.
5    Navy won 25 of its 27 draws (92.6) against Iona in its opener, marking just the 5th time in school history the team has won 90 percent or more of its faceoffs. It's the best performance by a Navy team in Joe Amplo's 7 years as head coach.
4    Navy has been held to single digits in 4 of its last 5 contests against Towson (L 8-7 in 2013 / L 14-9 in 2014 / W 8-7 3OT in 2015 / L 17-5 in 2024).
3    AJ Marsh (Jr / D) stands 3rd on Navy's all-time points scored by a Navy pole (D/LSM) leader board with 14 (7G, 7A). He is chasing 2nd-place Pat Kiernan (17 / 2011-14) and record holder Matt Rees (19 / 2014-17).
2    During the Joe Amplo era, Navy has lost just 2 games when holding its opponent to single digits. The Mids are 30-2 when achieving that feat since 2020. 
1    Zach Hayashi (Jr / FO) has been named the 2026 Patriot League Preseason Faceoff Specialist of the Year and returns to the field after missing 7 games a year ago with a knee injury. He is the only Navy player in program history to win 200+ faceoffs in a single season, achieving it in 2024 (214). 

Scouting Towson
• In his 15th season leading the Towson lacrosse program, head coach Shawn Nadelen's #17/17 Tigers are off to a 0-1 start after dropping a heartbreaker to #16/15 Johns Hopkins in their opener on Tuesday. Towson's true opener against North Carolina was canceled due to the weather on Feb. 1.
• Towson enters 2026 as the two-time reigning CAA champion, including two undefeated regular seasons and CAA Tournament victories, leading to a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances. 
• Towson will have to replace several key players from a year ago including Matt Constantinides, the program's all-time leader in faceoff wins and ground balls; Luke Downs, two-year starting goalkeeper; Chop Gallagher, 2025 All-American midfielder; Joe Petro and Conor Spagnolli, 2025 All-American close defensemen.
• The Tigers will rely heavily on All-American Mikey Weisshaar (Sr / M). The 2025 CAA Offensive Player of the Year paced the conference in goals and points per game, tallying 72 points on 48 goals and 24 assists a year ago. He had turned in a point in 40-consecutive games in which he's played. He scored 4 goals on 10 shots Tuesday against the Blue Jays.
• After missing the 2025 campaign due to injury, Joaquin Villagomez (R-Jr / A / 33G, 12A in 2024), although the 3rd-year attackman did not play in either of the first two games.
• Ronan Fitzpatrick (R-So / A), the team's second-leading point producer a year ago, is out for the year due to injury. He recorded 54 points on 43 goals and 11 assists in 2025.
• Kai Lopez stood out against Johns Hopkins at the "x" where he won 13 of the 23 draws (56.5) he took. He also scored a pair of goals off faceoff wins in the contest.
• Matt Nilan made his 1st start between the pipes where he made 10 saves and gave way to 13 Blue Jay goals.

Navy-Towson Series
• Saturday's contest between Navy and Towson marks the 17th game in the series and just the 3rd meeting since 2015.
• Navy holds a narrow 9-7 series advantage, including last year's 14-10 victory at home. However, Towson has won 6 of the 8 games played on the Tigers' home field (15-8 in 1991 / 14-7 in 1995 / 14-6 in 1997 / 10-9 in 2010 / 14-9 in 2014 / 17-5 in 2024). Navy's wins at Towson came in 1993 (8-7) and 2012 (10-6).
• 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 the 3rd time Navy's Joe Amplo has played Towson as a head coach (Navy or Marquette). Towson head coach Shawn Nadelen, meanwhile, is 3-3 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 12 of the 16 meetings, including 7 of the last 9 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.
• Towson's Shawn Nadelen and Navy's Zach Hayashi joined forces over the summer to help lead the U.S. Men's U20 Team to a silver medal at the 2025 World Lacrosse Men's U20 Championship held in Jeju Island, Korea in August.
• Nadelen is the head coach of the U.S. Men's U20 Team, while Hayashi paired up with North Carolina's Brady Wambach to dominate the faceoff game.

Iona Takeaways
• After having its true opener against High Point scheduled for Jan. 31 canceled, Navy scored a 17-7 win over 2nd-year program Iona last Friday in Annapolis.
• The win marked Navy's 100th victory in a season opener. The Mids are now 100-18-1 all-time, including 84-11-1 when opening at home. Joe Amplo is 6-1 in openers at Navy.
• Ten different players accounted for the Mids' 17 goals, including 4 who recorded their first-collegiate goals. In total, 16 players closed out the contest with at least one point.
• The 4 Navy players who scored their 1st-career goals last Friday included Quinn Anzelone (Fr / A), Nick Golini (Jr / M), Daniel Kolin (Fr / M) and Joshua Nagy (So / SSDM).
• Kolin not only scored his 1st-collegiate goal, he scored the team's 1st goal of the season just 55 seconds into the game.
• Alec Gregorek (So / A), making his 1st-career start, led Navy by scoring a career-high 4 goals on 5 shots. Fellow attackman Aydan DiRocco (So) punched in a career-high 3 goals on 4 shots.
• Defensively, 4 of Navy's 5 goalkeepers saw action to combine for 6 saves, including 3 each by 3rd-year starter Dan Daly and rookie Ethan Train.
• Navy's faceoff unit was phenomenal, as veterans Zach Hayashi (Jr) and Colin Shadowens (Sr) both went 9 for 10, while newcomer Luke Cascadden was 4 for 4 and Joey Bucci (Jr) was 3 for 3. As a squad, Navy won 25 of the 27 draws (92.6) on the day.

Road Rules
• The Mids own a 240-190-4 (55.8) all-time record in true road games and a 15-14 (51.7) mark in neutral site games.
• Since the beginning of the 2004 campaign, Navy has won 66 of its 132 (50.0) true road contests.
• Navy has had a losing road record in 7 (2010-11-13-14-17-20-25) of the last 17 years. The Mids are 15-18 on the road under Joe Amplo in 7 seasons.
• Navy won road games against nationally-ranked opponents in each of the previous 4 seasons (2021-22-23-24). The Mids dealt #15 Loyola a 14-12 loss at Ridley Athletic Complex in Baltimore on April 17, 2021, earned a 12-11 overtime victory against #6 Army at Michie Stadium in West Point on April 23, 2022, knocked off #13 Loyola (11-10) for a second time in Baltimore on April 7, 2023 and defeated #8 Johns Hopkins 10-9 (OT) at Homewood Field on March 15, 2024.
• The 12-11 overtime win at #6 Army in 2022 marked the highest-ranked team Navy has defeated overall and on the road since defeating #3 Yale in New Haven, Conn. on May 15, 2016, in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.