ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Casey Quinson's goal with 2:13 remaining in the second overtime period secured a 16-15 victory by Colgate (3-6 / 2-3 Patriot League) over the Navy men's lacrosse team (6-4 / 2-2 Patriot League) Saturday afternoon at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. Quinn Spillett's goal with 5.8 seconds remaining in regulation forced the game into overtime.
"First of all, congratulations to Colgate," said seventh-year Navy head coach Joe Amplo. "That was a hell of a lacrosse game. I just told our team, those guys are the defending champions in our league, and they're not going to give up anything that easily and that was clear.
"I felt like we fought so hard to get it to a point where it looked like we had a chance to win late in the fourth quarter, and I think our guys, our staff, myself, took a deep breath and a sigh of relief, and that can't happen. That's on me for letting that happen. It's a lesson unfortunately we have to learn the hard way if we want to fight for a championship in this league. This league is as tough as any out there. These kids compete like crazy, these kids play as hard as anybody and they are well coached. It's a fight to the end. It's a tough lesson, but we'll move forward. We've got a lot to play for."
The loss spoiled a remarkable individual performance by Navy's
Alec Gregorek (So / A / Wading River, N.Y.) who finished the game with a career-high 7 goals, 2 assists and a personal-best 7 points. Both his goal and point totals are the most by a Navy player since David Little's school-record 9 goals and 9 points against Lehigh on March 25, 2017. The performance also helped Gregorek etch his name among Navy's top single-season goal scorers, as his 32 goals this spring are the most by a Navy player since Casey Rees closed out the 2016 campaign with 34 goals.
"He's (
Alec Gregorek) is a great player," said Amplo. "He's show up every game. The game looks easy to him sometimes, and he played within the system today. He's a scorer and a matchup problem for a lot of teams. We're really lucky to have him."
Six other Navy players pitched in goals, including All-American defenseman
AJ Marsh (Jr / Reisterstown, Md.) and Second-Team All-Patriot League midfielder
Jack Ponzio (So / Ronkonkoma, N.Y.) who each tallied a pair of goals. Meanwhile,
Race Ripley (Sr / A / Annapolis, Md.) made his second-consecutive start and was impactful with a goal and a career-high 4 assists. Ripley, who has primarily played as an extra-man specialist, has produced 5 goals and 5 assists for the Mids in the last 2 contests.
Defensively, the Mids forced 9 of Colgate's 19 turnovers, while senior netminder
Dan Daly (Wayne, N.J.) finished the game with 7 saves.
Possession was fairly even out of the faceoff game with Navy's
Zach Hayashi (Jr / North Potomac, Md. / 9-17, .529) and
Colin Shadowens (Sr / Severna Park, Md. / 9-18, .500) combining to win 18 of the 35 draws.
Quinson not only scored the game-winner for the Raiders, he paced the team with 6 goals and an assist. Quinn Spillett and Emmet Crotty, meanwhile, turned in 3 goals apiece. Andrew Lehrman made 13 saves, while John Carrabine was responsible for 3 of Colgate's 10 caused turnovers in the contest.Fischer Burke and Kyle Rummel shared the faceoff duties, with Burke winning 9 and Rummel winning 8.
Despite Navy striking first on a spectacular transition play between
Sean Gallagher and Marsh, Colgate went on to take a 4-2 advantage by the end of the first quarter.
Navy, though, opened the second quarter on fire, scoring 5-consecutive goals by 4 different players, to open up a 7-4 lead. Colgate answered and Quinson scored 3 in a row to even the game at 7 apiece heading into halftime.
The second half saw the two teams score in bunches. Ponzio scored back-to-back goals in the first 2 minutes of the quarter only to have Colgate's Patty Eldredge and Crotty score to knot the game up for a fifth time.
A goal by Gregorek at the 7:16 mark of the third quarter helped spark a 4-1 run by the Mids. Gregorek scored 3 of the 4 goals and assisted on the goal he did not score, to push the Mids out to a 13-10 lead.
Colgate trimmed the deficit to 2 (13-11) with a goal by Quinson to close out the quarter.
Gregorek once again stepped up and scored his seventh goal of the day off an assist from
Chad Connolly (Sr / SSDM / Huntingtown, Md.) to open the fourth quarter, while
Ryan Landolphi's (Jr / M / Manhasset, N.Y.) unassisted goal at 7:21 gave Navy a 15-11 lead. That, however, would be the final goal of the game for the Mids, as they methodically worked the shot clock down on their ensuing possessions.
"It was part of the strategy," said Amplo. "We felt like we were playing good defense and had used the whole shot clock earlier and scored late in possessions. I would do it again the same way. I don't think the offensive strategy was a mistake. When you're up four goals late, you've got to use the clock. It's the right strategy. Unfortunately, it didn't work out."
Colgate began what turned out to be a 5-goal run at the 4:41 mark on a Crotty goal to make it 15-12. All-Patriot League performer Hunter Drouin then trimmed the Mids' lead to 2 with 2:39 remaining. The Raiders went on to scored 2 goals in the final 42 seconds, including the game-tying goal on a crankshot by Spillett with 5.8 seconds left to send it into extra minutes.
It's the ninth time in the last 18 games between the programs in which the game has been decided by one goal, including the third-consecutive game played in Annapolis (Navy 11-10 in 2022 / Navy 10-9 in 2024). Meanwhile, it's Colgate's first win over Navy in Annapolis since defeating the Mids 10-7 on March 22, 2014.
Navy returns to action next Saturday when it plays host to Holy Cross in a nationally-televised contest. The second game of a men's and women's doubleheader, the Mids and Crusaders face off at 3:00 pm in a contest broadcast live on CBS Sports Network. Joe Miller will have the radio call on 1430 WNAV.
### Go Navy ###
