Men’s college lacrosse
Midshipmen can’t keep pace with No. 7 Orange
Navy must win league tourney to finish with winning record
Syracuse set a fast pace from the outset Saturday night, and host Navy did a good job of keeping up — for 24?½ minutes.
The Midshipmen matched the high-powered Orange goal-for-goal for most of an up-and-down first half. However, the visitors surged down the stretch, closing out the second quarter with four unanswered goals to gain some separation.
Senior attackman Bradley Voigt did all his damage from within a few yards of the cage in scoring five goals for seventh-ranked Syracuse, which cruised to an 18-9 victory over Navy.
There was a surprisingly large contingent of Syracuse fans in the announced crowd of 2,980 at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium and they roared with approval after every goal by the visitors.
“We've been trying to get better all year long. We've been trying to put 60 minutes together, and I think we're getting a lot closer to that,” Syracuse head coach John Desko said. “I think we played a good first half. I went in at halftime and got the stat sheet and we had only four turnovers in the first half. That's a good thing for Syracuse lacrosse, especially at this time of year.”
Junior attack Stephen Rehfuss totaled two goals and five assists for Syracuse, which avenged last season’s upset loss to Navy in the Carrier Dome. Senior attackman Nate Solomon added two goals and three assists for the Orange, who handed the Midshipmen their worst home loss since 1996.
Syracuse is certainly a good team. If you make a mistake, they’ll make you pay and that’s exactly what they did today,” Navy head coach Rick Sowell said.
Junior midfielder Jamie Trimboli contributed three goals and an assist for Syracuse (10-3), which will head into the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament on a four-game winning streak.
Senior midfielder Ryan Wade totaled a goal and three assists to lead Navy (5-7), which never led in the contest. Wade extended his point streak to 36 contests.
Freshman attackman Jack Sweeney scored two goals for the Midshipmen, who must capture the Patriot League Tournament championship in order to finish with a winning record.
Navy hosts Boston University (10-4, 5-2) in the regular season finale next Friday night. The Midshipmen are tied with Holy Cross and Bucknell for sixth place in the Patriot League with 3-4 records.
Top six teams earn a berth in the Patriot League Tournament and Navy beat Bucknell, but lost to Holy Cross if it goes to a tiebreaker.
“We’ve got to regroup and get ready for BU. It’s a must-win game to get in,” Sowell said. “So we’ll go back to work on Monday and start preparing for the Terriers.”
Goalkeeper Ryan Kern was under assault from start to finish and recorded nine saves in the face of 39 shots. Syracuse used slick passing to penetrate the defense and fired a slew of point-blank shots on cage.
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