Army Claims First Patriot League Regular Season Title Since 2010

Army might not be No. 1 in the country anymore. But the Black Knights are No. 1 in the Patriot League, and that’s plenty good for now.

Army’s 13-11 win at Loyola on Friday coupled with Boston University’s 13-12 comeback win at Colgate means the Black Knights will host the Patriot League championship for the first time since 2010.

In typical Patriot League fashion, however, the tournament was not finalized until Navy survived in overtime against Bucknell and Lehigh eked out a one-goal win over crosstown rival Lafayette.

The result? A two-way tie for first place (Army and Lehigh at 6-2 in conference) and a four-way tie for second place (Navy, BU, Colgate and Loyola at 5-3).

Army has the head-to-head tiebreaker over Lehigh while the other four teams were sorted according to the Patriot League’s revised multi-team tiebreaker procedures.

Third-seeded Navy hosts sixth-seeded Loyola and fourth-seeded BU hosts fifth-seeded Colgate in quarterfinals Tuesday. The winners will head to West Point, with the lowest remaining seed facing Army and the highest remaining seed facing Lehigh.

“It’s been a while,” Black Knights coach Joe Alberici said on CBS Sports Network. “2010. Which seems remarkable because we’ve had a lot of good teams in between then and now. That tells you a lot about the Patriot League and the quality of teams here.”

Ranked 12th in this week’s USA Lacrosse Division I Men’s Top 20, Army exploded for four goals in 76 seconds to turn a 7-5 deficit into a 9-7 advantage early in the second quarter. The Black Knights (11-2, 6-2) never relinquished the lead, but Loyola never went away.

The Greyhounds (7-7, 5-3) evened the score at 10 apiece when Evan James threaded a beautiful feed off a shot fake to Matthew Minicus on the doorstep for a goal with 9:23 left in the third quarter.

The score remained knotted at 9 going into the fourth, as both goalies got hot in the second half. Army’s Sean Byrne settled in after a rough start to make 14 saves, including six in the fourth quarter. Loyola’s Luke Staudt made 11 of his 14 saves in the final 30 minutes.

Midfielder Max McGillicuddy even got in on the action, stopping a shot in the final minutes as a stand-in for Staudt when the Greyhounds pulled the goalie to double-team the ball.

The damage had already been done, however. After goals by Gunnar Fellows and Reese Burek put the Black Knights ahead 12-10, Loyola could muster only a man-up tally by Joey Kamish.

Army’s Jackson Eicher scored just over a minute later for the final margin.

BU Flips Script on Colgate

Boston University denied 19th-ranked Colgate the Patriot League’s No. 1 seed, storming back from a 10-2 deficit to defeat the Raiders 13-12. They’ll meet again in four days.

The Terriers can thank faceoff specialist Matthew Fritz and offensive maestro Louis Perfetto for their reversal of fortune.

After Colgate opened up an eight-goal lead, Perfetto factored in six unanswered BU goals, teeing up a pair of Brenden Kelly tallies to close the second quarter, assisting Kelly again at the beginning of the third quarter and then canning three consecutive goals of his own.

Fritz fueled the comeback, guiding the Terriers to a 10-3 advantage at the stripe in the second half after the Raiders won 12 of 16 in the first half.

With Colgate clinging to a one-goal lead late in the fourth quarter, BU midfielder Jake Cates broke the Raiders’ 10-man ride with a 40-yard snipe on the open net to tie that game at 12.

Four minutes later, midfielder Zach Travaglini scored on a turnaround shot in front to give the Terriers the lead.

After a BU shot clock violation on the next possession, the Terriers needed one last defensive stand. Defenseman Connor Kehm intercepted a pass to seal the win.

Perfetto (three goals, five assists) tied Colgate’s Rory O’Connor (four goals, four assists) for game-high honors with eight points.