It was hardly a secret to Navy coach Joe Amplo when he took over two summers ago what the biggest obstacle was for his program to eventually return to the top of the Patriot League.

And if it was, the numbers made it pretty clear.

Loyola had won nine of 10 meetings with the Midshipmen prior to Saturday, including six of seven since the Greyhounds joined the conference. The last three meetings in Baltimore were especially forgettable for Navy — losses of 17-7 (2015), 18-7 (2017) and 18-5 (2019).

So while Saturday’s 14-12 defeat of Loyola won’t decide a conference title and won’t even be the most meaningful game Navy (4-2, 2-2 Patriot) plays this month — win or lose, that honor goes to Saturday’s rivalry showdown with Army in Annapolis — it still resonates throughout the Mids’ program.

“I think to a man, everybody said they wanted to beat Loyola,” Amplo said. “They’ve been the premier team in this conference. Certainly nationally, they’re a very big name consistently. I think they’re the class of the league for a long time. It’s a big win for us to validate some of the things these upperclassmen have done through their careers and certainly since our staff has been here.”

It doesn’t matter that Army and Lehigh, and not Loyola, appear to be the top teams in the Patriot League this season. The Greyhounds already picked up a 14-10 victory at Navy two weeks earlier and could have extended the Mids’ losing streak to three.

Instead, a senior class that’s gone through a coaching change and a pandemic-shortened season in the middle of their careers picked off a victory in memorable fashion. Navy scored the first six goals and led 12-6 before Loyola rattled off six in a row to tie it. Navy pole Jeff Durden collected a ground ball off the ensuing faceoff and scored to regain the lead, and senior attackman Christian Daniel fired into an empty net coming out of a timeout with 1:28 to go to seal it.

“Our mission is to love each other, love the process and overachieve, and we felt like we were killing it in the first two and the overachieve wasn’t really there yet,” Daniel said. “I think, finally, it all kind of came together.”

So does it count as a breakthrough? Maybe. It was definitely a result Navy appreciated, but Amplo realizes what the program does the rest of this year — and the next few — will determine the victory’s long-term impact.

“It’s one day,” Amplo said. “I have to be really smart about that, how we don’t get overexcited. It’s one really good moment. It’s two hours of time where Navy beat Loyola. I’m not dumb enough to sit here and say that Navy is at the point where we’re better than Loyola consistently in lacrosse just yet. We have a lot of work to make that happen.”