A quick glance at the final box score from the Loyola Maryland at Navy men’s lacrosse game might lead one to think the home team had a slight advantage.
The Midshipmen outshot the Greyhounds (45-41) and finished with a slight edge on faceoffs (14-12). Meanwhile, the goalie saves (12-12) and turnovers (17-17) were even.
Upon closer inspection, the one statistic that was glaring and played a huge factor in the outcome was ground balls. The Greyhounds beat the Mids, 39-30, in that category, which was somewhat surprising and extremely meaningful.
“I felt like they won most of the 50-50 ground balls tonight,” Navy coach Joe Amplo said. “I think we’re good when the ball’s on the ground, but they were better than us tonight.”
Ground balls translate into extra possessions and that was the deciding factor for Loyola, which beat Navy, 12-10, behind a balanced attack led by graduate student midfielders Adam Poitras and Evan James.
James and Poitras both finished with three goals and an assist as the Greyhounds jumped out to an early lead and controlled the game the rest of the way. Sophomore attackman Matthew Minicus totaled two goals and an assist for Loyola (7-6, 5-2 Patriot League), which has won three straight games against conference opponents.
Loyola coach Charlie Toomey knows the Midshipmen have always taken pride in winning the ground ball battle. Navy’s goal in every game is to gobble up 40 grounders, matching the uniform number of revered former defenseman Brendan Looney, a Marine Corps officer who was killed in action in September 2010.
“I know down here they call getting 40 ground balls a Looney,” said Toomey, who was once an assistant at Navy. “We knew we would have to match that intensity that they were going to bring to [that area]. When I look at the stat sheet I’m like ‘wow’ — 39 ground balls. I think we did a good job of fighting and scrapping for those 50-50 grounders.”
Toomey reserved special praise for Poitras, who led Loyola with eight ground balls. One of those came when he collected a rebound on the crease and scored. Several others came in the offensive end and extended possessions.
“You don’t see an attackman with eight ground balls. That’s an amazing stat. He just battled,” Toomey said.
Meanwhile, Navy’s slight edge on faceoffs was somewhat deceiving and proved another key factor in the contest. Freshman Zach Hayashi ranks second in the Patriot League in faceoff winning percentage, while Loyola has struggled all season with winning draws.
On Friday night, freshman Carson Hall made Loyola competitive in that department. As Amplo pointed out afterward, not all of the Midshipmen’s 14 faceoff wins resulted in possessions as they committed several turnovers before getting the ball into the box.
Hall won 4 of 6 faceoffs in the first quarter and that was a big reason why Loyola jumped out to a 4-1 lead with Poitras scoring two goals and graduate student attackman Joey Kamish dishing off two assists.
“When we win faceoffs, we’re a dangerous team,” Toomey said. “When we have the ball, we’re going to give ourselves a chance. Carson gave us a great chance tonight.”
Amplo agreed that falling behind in the first quarter and having to play catch up the rest of the way put Navy behind the eight ball.
“They were really sharp early on offense and we expected that,” Amplo said. “Watching them on film, they’re excellent. I think they’re one of the best offensive teams we’ve seen. They’re old and have some guys that have seemingly been around forever and they play well together. I thought we were chasing the game the whole night.”
Navy fell behind 7-2 last Saturday against Army and Amplo said the slow starts have to stop.
“Going down early seems to be the thing we do right now. That first quarter is what we need to figure out. After 4-1, it’s a heck of a lacrosse game,” he said.
Senior attackman Jon Jarosz scored four goals to lead Navy (7-6, 4-3), which twice rallied from three-goal deficits to get within one. Last time came early in the third period when sophomore midfielder Paul Garza made a spectacular individual move and scored off a one-armed slingshot to make it 7-6.
Jarosz has now scored nine goals in the last three games since returning from an injury that forced him to miss five games.
“The plan was to put the ball in [Jarosz’s] stick and he had a heck of a night. He was unguardable at times. He probably thinks he could have [scored] a couple more,” Amplo said.
The Mids could not sustain the momentum and the Greyhounds promptly used a 4-1 run to take their largest lead of the game, 11-7, with 3:45 remaining in the third quarter.
“I just told the team I didn’t think we deserved to win throughout the game. I thought our heart showed, but Loyola certainly outplayed us tonight and deserved to win,” Amplo said.
Toomey also highlighted senior goalie Luke Staudt, who returned after missing two games with a concussion and recorded 12 saves.
While the loss before an announced crowd of 2,251 at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium was disappointing, the Midshipmen did get some good news. Army beat Bucknell, which clinched a berth in the Patriot League Tournament for Navy.
“It’s great knowing we have more time with these guys and we have a chance to play another meaningful game,” Amplo said. “The truth is that we need to continue to improve because there’s a better game out there for us. Our guys have to rise to the occasion.”
Loyola (7-6, 5-2) 4-3-4-1=12
Navy (7-6, 4-3) 1-4-3-2=10
GOALS: L — Poitras 3, James 3, Minicus 2, Binney 2, Kamish, Heuston. N — Jarosz 4, Arline, Tolker, Connolly, Conway, Peters, Garza. ASSISTS: L — Kamish 2, Lindsey 2, James, Minicus, Poitras, Sally. N — Arline, Hewitt, Marsh. SHOTS: L — 41. N — 45. SAVES: L — Staudt 12. N — Daly 12. FACEOFFS: L — 12. N — 14. GROUND BALLS: L — 39. N — 30.