ANNAPOLIS, Md. —  Senior co-captain Mac Haley (A / Shady Side, Md.) scored three-consecutive goals in the late stages of the fourth quarter to lead the Navy men's lacrosse team (3-1, 0-0 Patriot League) to a 12-11 victory over #11/10 Penn State (2-2, 0-0 Big Ten) Saturday afternoon at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. Haley scored the game-tying goal at the 5:21 mark before scoring goals just 24 seconds apart to give the Mids the lead for good.

The win marked Navy's first over a top-11 team since defeating eighth-ranked Johns Hopkins 10-9 in overtime on March 15, 2024. It's Joe Amplo's 11th win over a top-20 program in his seven seasons coaching Navy and his fourth over a top-11 team (#10 Army in 2021, #6 Army in 2022, #8 Johns Hopkins in 2024, #11 Penn State in 2026).

"What a great game, what an awesome game to be a part of," said Amplo. "I'm really proud of these guys for how they responded. I told them before the game, you guys are the most resilient human beings in your age group on the planet. It's not even close. That's what's going to shine today and it truly did. 

"They (Penn State) scored the first two goals in the third quarter, we don't flinch, we hang in there. They go up in the fourth quarter, we don't flinch. They score one late and we've got to win that faceoff, we've got to make a play at the end and we did. We just hung in there and kept fighting."

William Goers (Sr / A / Chester, Md.) scored an unassisted goal off a restart less than two minutes into the contest to put the Mids on the scoreboard first. However, Penn State proceeded to score four of the next five goals, including two against Navy's ride, to lead 4-2 with four minutes to go in the opening quarter.

Navy kept its footing and evened the game with back-to-back goals, including an extra-man strike by Goers in transition with just 18.6 seconds left in the frame.

Navy's defense held the nation's ninth-ranked scoring offense without a goal for just over 10 minutes, while the Mids took their first lead in the game at 12:55 in the second when Annapolis native Nick Golini (Jr / M) fed Jack Ponzio (So / M / Ronkonkoma, N.Y.) for a 15-yarder from the left wing. Goers went on to notch the first-half hat trick with his unassisted goal at 11:09 to give Navy a 6-4 lead.

The Nittany Lions finally found the back of the net at 8:58 when Kyle Lehman's bounce pass found Liam Matthews in front of the crease for the goal. Penn State knotted the game at six-all when Matthews fed Chase Robertson who came charging from the top of the box and netted his lone goal at 3:49.

Navy, however, would take a 7-6 lead into the break as Goers lured the defense to the right of the cage and found a wide open Jack Flaherty (Sr / M / Massapequa, N.Y.) flashing in from the left wing for the goal.

Penn State used just 27 seconds to pull even with the Mids to open the second half, as Lehman found short-stick defensive middie Jon King for the transition goal. Reigning Big Ten Freshman of the Year Hunter Aquino, who came into the contest averaging 4.33 points and 3.33 goals per game, scored his only goal of the game on an extra-man strike to put the Nittany Lions back on top (8-7 / 7:15) for the first time since 1:31 in the first quarter.

Navy and Penn State exchanged goals over the final seven minutes with the Nittany Lions holding a 9-8 advantage heading into the final frame.

The Mids evened the game at 9-9 (8:34) when Haley rolled back to his right to allow enough space between he and his defender to thread a pass through to Alec Gregorek (So / A / Wading River, N.Y.) in front of the cage.

The Nittany Lions again answered when Luke Walstrum went high to high on Navy goalkeeper Dan Daly (Sr / Wayne, N.J.) from 3 yards out to give Penn State a 10-9 advantage with 7:40 remaining in the contest.

Navy's defense began to clamp down and held Penn State scoreless for nearly five minutes, while Haley took over the game on the offensive end. Anticipating a Navy player would cut to fill the middle, defenseman Patrick Keenan retreated just enough to give Haley an open look and he beat rookie goalkeeper Preston Hawkins down low to knot the game for an eighth time (10-10) at 5:21 in the fourth.

Haley scored a sensational goal a little more than two minutes later when he rolled back to his right and beat both his defender and the shot clock as he was falling to the turf. There were just two seconds remaining on the shot clock when he scored the go-ahead goal with 3:01 left. On the ensuing faceoff, Navy was able to come up with the loose ball and capitalized when Gregorek found Haley who stepped to the right of his defender and punched in his fourth of the game and third in less than three minutes to give Navy a 12-10 lead with 2:37 to go.

Penn State would get to within one with a goal by Patrick Carragher, but Navy's defense was stout over the final 1:51 to secure the win.

Haley, who made the leap from 33rd to 28th on Navy's all-time points scored list with 108, paced the Mids with five points on a career-high four goals and an assist. With the assist, he became just the 20th player in school history to deal out 50 assists in a career.

Goers turned in four points (all in the first half) on three goals and an assist, while Gregorek chipped in a pair of goals and an assist and Flaherty had two goals.

Navy's defense threw a number of looks Penn State's direction and kept the Nittany Lions guessing. The Mids held two of Penn State's top two scorers to a combined three points with Aquino held to a goal and an assist, while Jack Iannantuono dealt out just a single assist. All-American defenseman AJ Marsh (Jr / Reisterstown, Md.) posted two caused turnovers and grabbed four ground balls, while both Sean Gallagher (Sr / D / Garnet Valley, Pa.) and Jackson Roberts (Sr / D / Arnold, Md.) had a caused turnover and three ground balls.

The heart and soul of the defense, however, was Daly, who found his way back into the lineup at goal after having his 33-game starting streak snapped on Tuesday against VMI. Daly was at his best when his team needed it, making three of his 10 saves in the final 15 minutes. He also became just the 11th player in the program's 119-year history to reach 400-career saves. The last player to join that list was Ryan Kern in 2020 (465 svs / 2017-20).

"He's (Daly) a champion, he's a winner. He's everything this place should be about, is about," said Amplo. "He's an example for every human being who plays athletics. For how to handle adversity and come back and just do your job. I could not be more proud of him, his teammates and there's no question why this team played the way they did today because you've got leaders like Dan Daly and Mac Haley at the front of the ship.

Penn State edged out Navy by four in a rather even battle at faceoff with the Nittany Lions winning 15 draws to Navy's 11. Colin Shadowens (Sr / Severna Park, Md.)  won 8 of the 14 draws he took, while Zach Hayashi (Jr / North Potomac, Md.) was 3 for 12. Penn State also used a two-man rotation with Reid Gills winning 8 of 13 and Colby Baldwin winning 7 of 13.

Navy opens Patriot League action next Saturday when it travels to Boston to take on the 15th-ranked Terriers. Faceoff is slated for 12:00 pm at Nickerson Field.

### Go Navy ###