Offensive struggles doom Navy
When Navy men’s lacrosse jumped out to an early three-goal lead, it appeared the home team would easily dispatch Manhattan. Remarkably, the Midshipmen only scored two more goals the rest of the way.
Poor shooting combined with an outstanding performance by the opposing goalie wound up dooming the Mids.
Joseph Persico amassed 22 saves and Manhattan scored the game’s final five goals to upset Navy, 6-5, on Saturday at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. It was the first loss of the season for the Midshipmen (3-1), who were seeking their first fourgame winning streak during the four-year tenure of coach Joe Amplo.
“Hats off to the Manhattan Jaspers. Those guys played their tails off today. It was extremely impressive,” Amplo said. “They had a plan and they stuck to it. They didn’t let our early lead get to them. They just kept doing what they do, and they did it well. You could see them gaining confidence throughout the game.”
Midfielder Max Hewitt put Navy on the board first with an unassisted goal at the 11:58 mark of the first quarter. The Mids struck again six seconds later as Anthony Ghobriel won the faceoff, raced into the offensive zone then fed freshman attackman Mac Haley for a point-blank shot.
An unassisted goal by freshman midfielder Jack Flaherty made it 3-0 with 5:33 remaining in the opening frame and that was the beginning of the end for the Navy offense. The Mids scored one goal in the second quarter and another early in the third, and that was it.
Junior attackman Jon Jarosz (Severn) blew past a short-stick defensive midfielder from behind the net for an unassisted goal that gave Navy a 5-1 lead with 11 minutes left in the third quarter. The Mids were unable to solve Persico the rest of the way, going the final 26 minutes without putting the ball in the net.
“I think overall today, offensively especially, we lacked a killer instinct,” Amplo said. “We got plenty of looks offensively. Heck, we produced 47 shots. We just didn’t have that killer instinct with the ball in our stick. That could be confidence or skill, but at the end of the day we didn’t score.”
It was a bad day for two of Navy’s biggest stars, as midfielder Patrick Skalniak and attackman Xavier Arline went a combined 0-for-22 shooting. Arline got off 13 shots, only five of which were on goal. Skalniak put 4 of 9 shots on target.
“It just didn’t go our way. Their defense played better than our offense,” said Skalniak, who had produced a point in 32 consecutive games — a scoring streak
that ranked fifth nationally. “Five goals isn’t acceptable. We failed as an offensive unit.”
Navy only put 27 of their 47 shots on goal and many were directly at Persico, who did not really need to make any spectacular saves. That was easily a career-high for the graduate student, whose first college appearance came in the season opener.
“Listen, 22 saves in a college lacrosse game is a heck of a lot of saves,” Amplo said. “I don’t think he made very many dramatic saves, but he’s a very good position goalie. He’s in the right spots. He’s a really sound goaltender and played extremely well today.”
Attackman Liam Walshe had a hat trick during Manhattan’s game-ending 5-0 run. Attackman Kyle Gucwa assisted on the first and last of those goals. Amplo could sense his players getting frustrated and tense as the lead was steadily erased.
“I do feel like our guys got tight. I tried to get them confident during one of the timeouts. I made positive statements to them,” he said. “It’s hard thing to do as competitors, when you’re feeling things slipping away, to get back in that mindset of positivity.”
Midfielder Tadhg O’Riordan scored his second goal with one minute remaining to give the Jaspers their first and only lead of the game. O’Riordan had time and space from about 8 yards out and ripped a crank shot past freshman goalie Dan Daly.
Navy won the ensuing faceoff and Amplo immediately called timeout to set up a play. Midfielder Dane Swanson got off a perimeter shot from directly out front, but Persico easily scooped the ball up on one bounce.
Manhattan is the reigning Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament champions and played in the NCAA Tournament last season.
“Look, that’s a championship team. Those kids know how to win big games,” Amplo said. “I know they play in the MAAC. I respect that conference a heck of a lot more than most people do.
“I think our guys had an assumption that they were going to win. At this level of Division I lacrosse, if you show up with that assumption, you’re going to get what you deserved. Today, we didn’t deserve to win.”