April 12, 2008

by Ken McMillan, Special to Lacrosse Magazine Online

WEST POINT, N.Y. - When Navy extended its men's lacrosse winning streak over Army to 13 games, an unusual thing happened: the pressure to win increased on both sides.

"It shows the tradition that Navy has had over the years," Navy senior attackman Nick Mirabito said of the unprecedented streak in a series that started in 1924. "Every year you come in and expect to uphold that tradition. Yeah, I'd say it was kind of surreal."

"It was frustrating," said Army senior goalie Adam Fullerton, on the losing end of six series contests during his first three seasons. "You are putting a whole lot of work in, and your school is based on beating Navy. You come up short so many times like we did - that really frustrates you and forces you to go back to work."

Army head coach Joe Alberici knew the streak weighed heavy on the minds of his players, so he called a team meeting last Sunday to address the issue just one time.

"I didn't want our kids thinking about it," said Alberici, who was an Army assistant coach the last time the Black Knights beat Navy at home - in April 1996. "I said to them, 'Fellas, this is about us being better than them in 2008 for 60 minutes. That's all this is about. I am aware of the streak and you are aware of the streak, but that is not your cross to bear. Most of you guys weren't involved in a lot of those games, so it's not anything you have to matter yourself with. It's about being better for 60 minutes."

Alberici and the 17th-ranked Black Knights met the task and got their wish, a 9-6 victory over the sixth-ranked Midshipmen before 4,789 fans on a warm and mostly cloudy afternoon at Michie Stadium.

There's no way Army can change the outcome of 13 consecutive losses to Navy since 1997, but one series victory in the Black Knights' final home game will go a long way to ease the pain.

"Finally, finally," Fullerton said on the heels of an 11-save effort. "We've been working real hard for this. Obviously, everyone was looking forward to it. Our time came."

Navy's lacrosse classes from 2001 to 2007 never lost to Army, and the seniors from 1998-2000 went out victorious in their final games against the Black Knights.

"It's tough being that first senior class to lose since, I guess, the late 1990s," Mirabito said. "It hurts, but you have to give credit to Army. They played well, and we didn't play well enough to win."

Navy head coach Richie Meade, a former Army assistant (1991-94) said he feels miserable with every loss, but even he appreciates how important the win was for the West Pointers.

"In a way, I feel good for Army that they get a chance to experience this," Meade said, "so we have to congratulate them and move on."

Army (8-3), ranked 17th in the USILA coaches' poll and 13th with the media, jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the opening eight minutes on goals from Justin Bokmeyer, Kevin LoRusso and Alex Rhoads. "From that moment on, we were on our heels," Meade said. "We didn't play the way we play."

Once sixth-ranked Navy (9-3) stopped turning the ball over, the Midshipmen chipped away and drew even early in the second quarter on goals from Zack Schroeder and Tim Paul.

The Black Knights regained momentum when Jason Peyer scored twice before halftime. He finished off a great transition play by converting a cross-crease pass from Jeremy Boltus at 8:32 of the second quarter. With just over two minutes left, he managed to get a step on Navy's Brandon Butler as he dashed out from behind the net, pivoted and scored off a jump shot.

The Midshipmen drew to within a goal just 71 seconds into the third quarter off a score from Basil Daratsos. Army struck back immediately, as Peyer set up Bokmeyer, who got loose inside on a defensive breakdown.

"That took the wind out of our sails," Mirabito said. Boltus and Bokmeyer added goals before the end of the third for an 8-4 lead.

Alberici praised his team's preparation and execution. He was pleased with Army's six-on-six play on both offense and defense, and was thrilled to get three goals in transition.

"I thought that we stayed aggressive throughout but we played smart," Alberici said. "We weren't reckless. We recognized matchups that we liked to begin our offense."

The loss was hardly the thing Navy expected, especially coming off an impressive 5-4 overtime win over then-No. 3 Maryland a week ago.

"We just didn't play our best game," Paul said. "Our transition wasn't really there. We had poor communication on the offense and our shots didn't go in, as many as we want to, and their shots went in. That's what it came down to."

"We didn't think they could score nine goals on us, to tell you the truth," admitted Meade, whose team has the No. 1 ranked defense in the nation. "I mean, we knew they could, but we didn't think we would make those types of errors."

The Navy loss also snapped a 14-game win streak in Patriot League regular-season play and 18-game conference win streak including playoffs. The Midshipmen are 36-3 in league play since joining in 2004. The only other losses came to Bucknell in 2005 and Colgate in 2006.

The Navy loss also opens the door for Bucknell to earn the top seed and home field for the Patriot League tournament (April 25-27). Navy has finished league play at 5-1. Army and Bucknell are both 4-1. Army closes conference play Tuesday at Lafayette. Bucknell hosts No. 4 seed Colgate in Saturday's Patriot finale.

Should Army and Bucknell both win, the league will have to go to its fourth tie-breaker (goals differential) to settle the three-way tie. In that case, Bucknell (plus two) will be seeded first, Army (even) will be the second seed and Navy (minus two) will be seeded third - assuring another Army-Navy meeting in the semifinals.

Saturday's matchup, for one, was a return to the days when both clubs had a pile of wins and a stake in the national picture. Although neither coach wanted to look beyond their team's next contest, both Army and Navy are in position to contend for NCAA tournament at-large berths should either falter in the Patriot League tournament.

"The fact [that we won and] they are ranked No. 6 in the country does bring national ramifications," said Alberici, who has turned the fortunes of a team which squandered a 6-1 start a year ago by dropping its final eight games.

"We have a very good group of kids," Meade said. "We have very good leadership, and they have played very, very hard the whole year...We're going to recover, and we're going to move on. We have a big game next week [against Johns Hopkins]. We have games after this that we will get a chance to play. Maybe at the end of this year, this could be something that benefits us down the road."

Alberici, who had a chance to embrace his family at the end of the afternoon, said he was "humbled" by his first coaching victory over Navy.

"I've never really made it about me," he said. "It's about our kids, and really for our seniors, because it's the first one under their belt. I plan on being in more Army-Navy rivalries. This could be the last one for them. I am just happy for them, because it's a victory everlasting, a victory they will have with them for a lifetime."