Sunday’s matinee matchup with Towson was a measuring stick for Navy men’s lacrosse.
The Tigers hammered the Midshipmen, 17-5, last season at Johnny Unitas Stadium. Sixth-year Navy coach Joe Amplo called it the program’s worst performance during his tenure and challenged his team to make amends in the rematch.
The Midshipmen on Sunday responded to their mentor’s mandate and made a strong early-season statement on a wet and windy day at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.
Freshman attackman Will Goers scored four goals and dished off two assists as Navy upset 16th-ranked Towson, 14-10, on a rain-soaked field. Junior midfielder Jack Flaherty totaled two goals and two assists for the Mids, who used an 8-1 run to erase an early 3-0 deficit.
After a rough start, junior goalkeeper Dan Daly stepped up strong and finished with 13 saves for the Midshipmen, who improved to 7-1 against Towson in Annapolis. Specialist Zach Hayashi won 16 of the 26 faceoffs he took to give Navy an advantage in that key category.
Senior attackman Carter Ash added two goals, while sophomore defenseman AJ Marsh contributed a goal and assist for Navy (3-0), which won the ground ball battle 37-25 and was 21-for-22 clearing.
“I’m proud of our guys. The theme for the game was sustained intensity mentally and physically and I thought we did that for most of the game,” Amplo said.
It marked the third straight season Navy has beaten a ranked opponent, and doing so in February shows what this team can be.
“It just gives us confidence that when all the pieces work together in unison you have a chance to compete and beat a really good team. Our job now is to continue to get better,” said Amplo, noting that Navy will travel to State College, Pennsylvania, and face No. 10 Penn State on Saturday.
Junior attackman Mikey Weisshaar scored three goals and assisted two others to lead Towson (0-3), which dropped its opener at home to No. 8 Johns Hopkins (11-10) on Feb. 4 then got routed by No. 2 Syracuse (18-7) on Monday. Graduate student midfielder Chop Gallagher added two goals and an assist for the Tigers, who were left reeling by the 8-1 run.
“It’s hard to earn a win when we’re not making stops on the defensive end and not putting the ball away on the offensive end,” Towson coach Shawn Nadelen said. “That’s a tough, scrappy Navy team. They did a great job coming back and we could not stop that momentum.”
Nadelen moved Weisshaar, a former Capital Gazette Player of the Year, from midfield to attack to give the latter unit more punch. That decision paid dividends early as the Spalding graduate had a goal and two assists to give the Tigers a 3-0 lead just over four minutes into the game.
Navy quickly called timeout to stem the tide as Amplo did not want to see a repeat of last season when Towson took a 7-1 lead early in the second period and never looked back.
“It’s a 60-minute game. At 3-0, I didn’t feel I was worried that we weren’t going to climb back into it,” Amplo said.
Navy responded impressively with Flaherty sparking the comeback with a goal and two assists. The Mids had eight goal-scorers during that 8-1 run, which was fueled by Hayashi dominating the draws.
“I thought Zach Hayashi and the wings did a great job during that run. It helped us sustain the energy and emotion on the offensive end,” Amplo said.
Fitzpatrick briefly stopped the onslaught with an unassisted goal that gave Towson its last lead at 4-3 in the first quarter. Navy responded just over a minute later with an unassisted goal by Jack Nichtern, a member of the third midfield.
Goers got his first goal off a strong individual move from behind the cage and midfielder Ramon LaRocco scored with just 12 seconds to go in the opening frame as Navy took a 6-4 lead and never allowed Towson to tie the rest of the way.
Nadelen was at a loss to explain what happened during the decisive run that transformed a 3-0 lead into an 8-4 deficit.
“I don’t know if we got a little complacent. They definitely ratcheted it up and outscrapped us for ground balls. Maybe a little false confidence after that early lead. It felt like a little bit of that,” he said.
Weisshaar scored off a left-handed high-to-low shot from a tough angle to start a 3-0 run that got Towson within 8-7 midway through the second quarter. However, Navy scored twice in the final minute and a half with close defenseman AJ Marsh assisting Goers and long stick midfielder Sean Gallagher clearing the ball end-to-end and unleashing a wicked overhand crank shot that made it 10-7 at halftime.
Goers was a role player as a member of the second midfield as a senior at St. Mary’s High. A year at the Naval Academy Prep School did wonders in terms of growth and maturity.
Goers had already impressed the coaching staff in amassing five points through two games, but took his game to another level in posting the most single-game points by a Navy plebe since attackman Sam Jones had six against Lafayette in 2011.
“Will doesn’t surprise me because I don’t know if there’s a player on our team that loves playing lacrosse more than this young man,” Amplo said. “I’m proud of him. His improvement spike has been remarkable.”
This was a meaningful game for Goers since his father is one of Towson’s all-time greats. Mark Goers, Navy’s director of lacrosse operations, is the program’s all-time leader in career faceoff winning percentage and a member of the Towson Athletics Hall of Fame.
“I was really excited. It meant something because my dad went there and because they beat us pretty bad last year. I wanted this one a lot,” the younger Goers said.
is not playing more just because of how aggressive he is and what a matchup problem he is,” Nadelen said. “Obviously, he had a really strong game today. He took advantage of his opportunities.””]
Daly stood tall between the pipes to prevent Towson from rallying in the second half. He made just two saves in giving up seven goals in the first half then stopped 11 shots and allowed just one goal in helping Navy build a 13-8 lead in the final frame.
“I think Dan settled in. That’s kind of the way he’s been this season. Early on, he’s been a little sluggish. Once he gets settled in you can see it in his stance and explosion to the ball. We saw that starting about midway through the second quarter,” Amplo said.
“I also think we got more confident defensively and started to be more connected, and that gives [Daly] more confidence. He was seeing shots that were contested from spots we wanted to give up. He bailed us out a couple times.”
Have a news tip? Contact Bill Wagner at bwagner@capgaznews.com, 443-534-0102 and x.com/@BWagner_CapGaz.
Towson (0-3) — 4-3-1-2 — 10
Navy (3-0) — 6-4-1-3 — 14
GOALS: T — Weisshaar 3, Gallagher 2, Fitzpatrick 2, Vieni, Boswell, Maurer. N — Goers 4, Flaherty 2, Ash 2, Marsh, Ponzio, Tolker, LaRocco, Nichtern, Gallagher. ASSISTS: T — Weisshaar 2, Gallagher, Petro, Roussel, Schrier. N — Flaherty 2, Goers 2, Haley, Marsh. SHOTS: T — 46. N — 42. SAVES: T — Nilan 9. N — Daly 13. FACEOFFS: T — 12. N — 16. GROUND BALLS: T — 25. N — 37.