Navy Bites Back, Beats Bucknell in PL Final
by Barb Krohn | Special to Lacrosse Magazine Online
|
| Navy men's lacrosse players celebrate their 9-8 win
over top-seeded Bucknell in the Patriot League championship game
Sunday, sending the Mids to their sixth straight NCAA
tournament. © Barbara Krohn |
LEWISBURG, Pa.-- With the temperature of the
turf in Bucknell's Christy Mathewson Stadium reading 145 degrees
and air temperature at 90 degrees Sunday, Navy men's lacrosse coach
Richie Meade was concerned about his team's ability to run.
He need not have been.
The third-seeded Midshipmen outhustled top-seeded Bucknell, the
Patriot League regular season champion, and came up with a 9-8 win
when it really counted on a scramble that went south for the
Bison.
The game was tied at seven late in the fourth quarter when
extra-man specialist Evan Sullivan scored on a rocket shot from 10
yards out on the left wing to give Navy an 8-7 lead with three
minutes remaining. It was Sullivan's seventh extra-man goal of the
year.
Bucknell's John Scally won the ensuing faceoff, but the ball was knocked loose when he was double-teamed by Robby Battle and Matt Bitter. It rolled 25 yards right down the middle of the field past numerous Bucknell players and found the back of the net to give Navy what would prove to be the game-winning goal.
The goal was scored as a team goal for Navy since the ball was never shot.
"I was concerned about us hustling," said Meade. "We've been
trying to run on everybody. At the beginning today, we really
executed."
Meade emphasized tighter defense on Bucknell freshman Charlie
Streep, who scored the Bison's game-winning goal against Navy as
time expired in the teams' regular season matchup.
"We did a good job on Streep. He hurt us in the last game," he
said.
Besides Streep, Meade wanted to make Bucknell's midfield run.
"We wanted to extend their midfield and in the second half, they
didn't sub their middies a lot. I don't know if that factored in
[the game-winning goal.] Battle came out fresh."
While that final Navy tally was technically the difference,
neither coach considered it the true deciding factor.
Down by a goal at halftime, the Midshipmen held the Bison
scoreless in the third quarter while scoring two goals of their
own.
"The way I looked at it is we lost that game in the third
quarter," said Bucknell coach Frank Fedorjaka. "We had the lead and
we played like we were five goals down.
"We didn't have ball control and when we did, we took bad
shots."
With the Patriot League championship -- Navy's fifth -- comes an
automatic bid to the NCAA tournament and
something just as important to the Midshipmen.
Redemption.
Ranked No. 11 in this week's USILA Division I poll, Navy found
itself in the unusual position of having lost two regular season
Patriot League games -- one to Bucknell and one to Colgate.
The Mids avenged the March 21 loss to the Raiders in the
tournament's semifinal Friday - although it took triple overtime to
do it.
"It's a great feeling," said Navy captain Andy Torney. "We were
down after the [regular season] Colgate game. We came together as a
team and we turned it around."
Although this will be the Mids sixth consecutive trip the NCAA
tournament, Torney is happy to have secured the automatic bid,
rather than at-large consideration.
"On selection Sunday there's nothing like knowing your name will
be called," he said.
"We've won five Patriot League Championships," said Meade. "And
they're all special, but this one is something extra."
Bredan Connors lef Navy with three goals - all in
the first half. Andy Warren, Patrick Moran, Bruce Nechanicky, Evan
Sullivan and Tim Paul each tallied one.
Tim Brandau led the Bison with three goals. Austin Winters had two
goals and assisted both fourth-quarter Bucknell goals to pull even
before the fluky finish.
Bucknell, ranked No. 15, would be a long shot for an at-large bid
to the NCAA tournament.
Notes: Navy's Tommy Phelan was named Patriot
League Tournament MVP. Phelan stopped a shot from Streep in the
final minutes of the game and made 10 saves in the game. Also named
all-tournament for the Midshipmen were Conners, Joe Lennon,
Geoff Leone and Torney. Bucknell's all-tournament players were Tim
Brandau, Austin Winters and Billy Haire.
