’Hounds dominate slumping Mids
Spencer’s 3 goals, 4 assists lead way as Loyola rolls up 42-26 advantage in shots
All-America attackman Patrick Spencer scored three goals and had four assists to lead No. 18 Loyola Maryland to an 18-7 dismantling of slumping Navy before an announced 1,307 on Saturday at Ridley Athletic Complex.
Senior attackman Zack Sirico also had three goals and one assist for the Greyhounds, who dominated possession and outshot the Midshipmen 42-26. Sophomore midfielder Alex McGovern contributed one goal and three assists, as Loyola (4-3, 3-0) remained unbeaten in the Patriot League.
“They controlled the faceoff part of the game and offensively they were very difficult to stop,” Navy coach Rick Sowell said of Loyola’s dominance. “They moved the ball extremely well and got some really good shots on our goalies. Today was a lot of Loyola.”
Sophomore midfielder Drew Smiley and junior attackman David Little scored two goals apiece for the Mids, who have lost three straight for the first time since 2014. Sophomore attackman Ryan Wade had a goal and two assists for Navy (2-6, 1-3), which is tied for last place in the Patriot League with Lafayette and Bucknell.
Navy was sloppy on offense, failing to connect on numerous passes en route to committing 11 turnovers. There were breakdowns on defense that left Loyola shooters wide open. The Mids committed six penalties and allowed three extra-man goals.
Sowell pulled starting goalie Ryan Kern early in the second quarter after he allowed six goals and stopped just one shot. Junior Nick Ramsey came on and made six saves while giving up 12 goals. Sowell was asked whether he went into the game planning to use Ramsey, a Crofton resident who received the first significant action of his college career.
“No, not at all. It was just, ‘We gotta get him out.’ He just wasn’t seeing the ball well,” Sowell said of Kern. “We had no preconceived thought that Nick would be playing. We thought Ryan would play better, to be quite honest.”
Even faceoffs, normally a Navy strength, were a problem with Loyola’s Graham Savio (15-for-22) outdueling Brady Dove and Joe Varello.
Sowell nodded his head in agreement when asked about the difficulty of not having any area of the game clicking.
“You hit the nail on the head there. There’s really no area that we can sink our teeth into and say we’re playing really well here,” Sowell said.
Loyola closed the first half on a 7-2 run to take total control of the game. It began with a goal by midfielder Brian Begley at the 9:04 mark of the first quarter. Eight players contributed a point during the spurt.
Spencer was the catalyst, scoring a goal and assisting on three in the first half.
“I thought we had a lot more flow on the offensive end. We had some things we wanted to clean up because last week we weren’t very smooth on the offensive end,” said Spencer (Boys’ Latin). “Defense made a lot of stops and we were able to get the ball out and get a lot of early offense.” Radio: TV: