BALTIMORE — Every time Tommy Mariano has stepped onto the Michie Stadium field throughout his Army career, he’s noticed the empty space on a banner listing the years of the Black Knights’ 16 NCAA tournament appearances.

None had come since 2010, making the fourth-seeded Black Knights’ 11-7 victory over second-seeded Lehigh in Sunday’s Patriot League championship game at Loyola’s Ridley Athletic Complex an especially sweet development.

“Every year you come in and you’re like ‘This is our year,’ and the past three years, we kind of fell short a bit,” said Mariano, one of Army’s three captains. “Same thing, same approach. You come here to win two games. After the first game, coach always says ‘We didn’t come here to get one.’ … To solidify our name on that banner is going to be nice.”

The Black Knights (13-4) set a single-season program record for victories as freshman Brendan Nichtern had three goals and three assists and goalie AJ Barretto earned tournament MVP honors with a 12-save showing against the Mountain Hawks (9-8).

Barretto was stout throughout the Black Knights’ three-game run over six days. An equally worthy MVP option was senior defenseman Johnny Surdick, who stifled Loyola star Pat Spencer (one assist) in the semifinals and then kept Lehigh points leader Lucas Spence to a goal in the title game

“The past couple games, we let in five, five and seven,” Surdick said. “We know if we hold a team to seven and under goals, our offense is going to put in eight, so it’s just a mindset thing for us to buckle down.”

Lehigh managed just two goals in the second half against Army’s tenacious defense despite a 12-for-12 faceoff showing after the break.

“I don’t think it’s necessarily that they’re doing anything different. I just think some of the young guys have gotten better and better,” Lehigh coach Kevin Cassese said. “They figured out their chemistry. You’ve seen those guys. They’re huge. They’re the guys you want defending your country. There are some big boys out there, and they don’t budge. They just say, ‘I’m going to D my guy up,’ and when they’re doing that well, they’re tough to crack.”

While Army’s defense is peaking late in the spring, the end of a nearly decade-long NCAA tournament drought was a byproduct of a multi-year process. There was the near-miss in 2017, when the Black Knights’ victories over Notre Dame and Syracuse weren’t enough to land them an at-large bid. Then came a 2018 littered with tight losses, with a 5-8 season the ultimate outcome.

It didn’t mean it was time to blow things up. But coach Joe Alberici knew it required the entire program to give itself an honest assessment.

“Maybe we took a few things for granted,” he said. “We’d had three consecutive 10-win seasons and we didn’t necessarily as a team — this isn’t a slight at the seniors, this is all of us involved in it — we didn’t take care of the little things that we needed to. We know the margin for victory at Army is very small.”

It meant granular details were ever more important, especially with a 21-man freshman class to acclimate into the program. Handling everything off the field took on even greater importance —  no small matter when such issues are already scrutinized more at a service academy than other schools.

Then again, Army’s seniors had already seen what could happen when they didn’t fret about such problems.

“The second we were all elected captains, we came together and said, ‘The only way this thing is going to get done is if we generate buy-in from the start,’ because that’s kind of what we were lacking last year a little bit,” Mariano said.

There were already hints of what could be a stirring season when Army went on the road to edge Massachusetts and Rutgers to start the season. With some enviable depth working in their favor, the Black Knights were generally consistent for much of the season. Along the way, they went 6-2 in games decided by two goals or fewer.

Sunday’s game felt as if it was heading in that direction for much of the day. Army scored the first three goals before Lehigh responded with five in a row before halftime. The Mountain Hawks took a 7-5 lead early in the fourth quarter, aided by faceoff ace Conor Gaffney’s 18-for-22 showing.

Yet even with a possession disparity, the stingy Black Knights never let Lehigh’s lead get any larger than two. Nichtern — who joined Barretto, Surdick and attackman Sean O’Brien on the all-tournament team — ignited the rally with a goal off an O’Brien feed with 12:16 to go.

Mariano tied it on a man-up score, and O’Brien —  who ran out of the box for much of the fourth quarter — delivered the go-ahead goal with 7:40 remaining. Nichtern would tack on a couple insurance goals to cap a stellar tournament in which he posted six goals and 11 assists.

Still, it was defense that defined Army’s grueling week, from a Tuesday quarterfinal at home against Holy Cross to its upset of Loyola and finally a comeback against a plucky Lehigh bunch beset all season by injuries.

Steady throughout was Barretto, who managed a .698 save percentage during the Patriot League tournament.

“He’s had a really good season, but he probably saved his best for last,” Alberici said.

Call it a banner showing for the senior goalie and, fittingly, a banner-altering week for the Black Knights.