Navy-Loyola men’s lacrosse ready for rematch in Patriot League Tournament

Let’s run it back.

Tuesday night in Annapolis, the Navy and Loyola Maryland men’s lacrosse teams face off 11 days after their last meeting on the same field.

Adam Poitras and Evan James combined for eight points as Loyola beat Navy, 12-10, on April 19. Much more will be at stake during the rematch in the Patriot League Tournament quarterfinals.

Seeding for the Patriot League Tournament came down to Friday night’s slate of games when Navy took care of its business by beating Bucknell, 13-12, in overtime. That result combined with wins by Boston University and Lehigh vaulted Navy into the third seed.

“We’re grateful that things bounced our way to get a home game. I didn’t want to travel to Boston or Colgate from a logistics standpoint,” Navy coach Joe Amplo said. “Being the third seed is better than being the sixth from an optics standpoint, but ultimately it comes down to who plays better on any given night in this league.”

Meanwhile, Loyola lost a heartbreaker at Army West Point, 13-11, and fell to the sixth seed. Had the Greyhounds beaten the Black Knights, they would have been the top seed and hosted the semifinals and finals.

That’s how little separation there was among the six teams that qualified for the playoffs. Loyola coach Charley Toomey said an hour-long bus ride to Annapolis was better than the alternatives that would have required an overnight road trip.

“It’s very difficult to beat a team twice in one season,” Toomey said. “On the positive side, there’s familiarity with the opponent in terms of personnel and scouting report.”

Amplo needs to figure out how to reverse the previous result. Navy won or finished even in every statistical category except one. Loyola won the ground ball battle, 39-30, and both coaches felt that was critical to the outcome.

“Honestly, it’s just about playing cleaner in the gray areas. That’s where games are won and lost. You’ve got to win those 50-50 plays, whether it’s a ground ball or a faceoff or a clear,” Amplo said.

Toomey expects the Navy coaches to make various adjustments after reviewing the regular season game and said the Loyola staff must do the same.

“This game is going to have its own identity and you have to be prepared to make changes based on how the flow of the game is going,” Toomey said. “You can’t expect this game to go the way the first one did.”

Navy, who hasn’t won a conference tournament game since 2010, needs to find a way to control Loyola’s three big guns —  Poitras, James and Matthew Minicus, who accounted for 11 points in the first meeting.

Poitras, who splits time between attack and midfield, was named first team All-Patriot League for the second straight season after amassing 53 points on the strength of a team-high 38 goals. The graduate student from Ontario also plays the wing on faceoffs and leads the Greyhounds with 39 ground balls.

James, another graduate student, has totaled 36 goals and 12 assists. Menicus, a sophomore attackman, has 27 and 15. Both are second team All-Patriot League picks.

“Team-wise, we’ve got to be unbelievably connected on defense. Their spacing is excellent and they do a good job of picking for those three to create mismatches,” Amplo said. “We’ve got to be better at team defense than they are at team offense, which is going to be a real challenge against a very veteran and talented group.”

Navy is led by senior close defenseman Jackson Bonitz, who was named first team All-Patriot League for the third time in his career on Monday. The McDonogh graduate ranks second in program history with 76 caused turnovers and has also gobbed up 151 career ground balls.

Short stick defensive midfielder Jackson Peters joined Bonitz as a first team all-conference selection after totaling 14 points and 28 ground balls, while serving as a key figure in the transition game.

Freshman long stick midfielder AJ Marsh, a McDonogh graduate, was named second team All-Patriot League in recognition of his man-to-man coverage and play between the lines.

Sophomore goalie Dan Daly was sensational in his first season as a starter, posting a .535 save percentage and 10.65 goals-against average. Daly, who earned a second team All-Patriot League nod, has 166 saves.

“Daly has been very consistent and we knew he could be that type of goalie. He just works so hard at his craft,” Amplo said.

Navy has been balanced offensively with attackman Xavier Arline and Henry Tolker leading the team with 36 and 32 points, respectively. Tolker has a team-high 26 goals, while Arline leads the Mids with 16 assists.Midfielder Max Hewitt was a second team all-conference selection after totaling 16 goals and 11 assists along with 25 ground balls.

Toomey is concerned about powerful attackman Jon Jarosz, who bullied his way from behind the cage to score four goals against Loyola in the first meeting. The Severn School product has been a force since returning from an injury and has 12 goals in nine games.

“I think we go into the game knowing [Jarosz] is going to take us to the cage hard. I’ll be disappointed if he scores goals driving off the end line,” said Toomey, who went to a zone to slow Jarosz.

Loyola’s faceoff unit struggled at times this season, but freshman Carson Hall had a strong game against Navy. While the final stats say the Mids won 14 of 26 draws in the first meeting, Amplo said that was misleading. An adjusted faceoff efficiency metric showed the Mids gained possession just 40% of the time following faceoffs.

Navy will be counting on freshman specialist Zach Hayashi, yet another McDonogh product, to dominate in that department during the rematch. He was named second team All-Patriot League after winning 57% (185 of 324) of faceoffs this season.

PATRIOT LEAGUE QUARTERFINALS

Loyola Maryland at Navy

Tuesday, 6 p.m.

Stream: ESPN+

Radio: 1430 AM