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As May approaches, why not start the madness a little sooner? One top five team — Princeton — lost, and another — Rutgers — needed late heroics to avoid a loss to unranked Penn State. A struggling Navy team beat rival Army. And 24, count ‘em, 24 saves from Brown goalie Connor Theriault helped create a five-way tie atop the Ivy League standings. Here’s a look back at a wild Saturday of NCAA Division I men’s lacrosse.

UNLIKELY HERO LIFTS NAVY OVER ARMY

Did you expect anything different?

Forget the sport, when it’s Army-Navy there’s no better rivalry. Saturday’s men’s lacrosse game delivered another classic chapter to the story with Navy upsetting Army 12-11 in overtime at Michie Stadium in West Point, N.Y.

Navy senior Jack Sweeney, who had not played in the game until the Mids went man-up in the overtime period, caught a pass in the middle of the Army defense from Max Hewitt and ripped home the game-winner.

Sweeney now has eight goals for the season and five of them have come on the extra man offense.

“He’s our captain,” said head coach Joe Amplo after the game on CBS Sports Network. “I said to him right before he went out there, ‘Do me a favor and end this.’ He played 20 seconds and had one of the biggest goals of his life out there today.”

Army, looking to avenge a 9-4 loss in last year’s game and trying to beat their rival at home for the first time since 2014, shut down Navy’s offense in the opening half to take a 6-3 lead. The Midshipmen struggled to get anything going, putting just five shots on cage in the opening 30 minutes.

Buoyed by the return of sophomore attackman Xavier Arline, Navy finally got things going on the offensive end in the second half. Arline, also a quarterback on the Navy football team, had not played since the Johns Hopkins game on March 18 due to injuries.

A no-look goal on a wraparound move behind the cage from Arline tied the game 8-8 early in the fourth quarter and then Arline fed Henry Tolker with 10:28 left in the fourth to put Navy up 9-8, its first lead since the opening minutes of the game.

A Dane Swanson goal with 9:27 left gave Navy a two-goal lead, but Army All-American Brendan Nichtern answered with a goal, igniting a three-goal rally for the Black Knights that culminated with Danny Kielbasa’s go-ahead goal with 5:16 left.

Navy’s Nick Cole picked up a loose ball in front of the cage with 1:57 left to force overtime.

Navy’s Nate Hammond won the faceoff to start overtime and then Army’s James Pryor was whistled for a holding call as he attempted a check from behind to set up Sweeney’s extra man game-winner.

The victory improved Navy to 8-5 this season and 4-3 in the Patriot League, clinching a conference tournament playoff spot. It was unquestionably Navy’s biggest win of a season that opened with a surprising loss to Mount St. Mary’s.

“They’re capable of competing with the better teams in the country when they play their best,” Amplo said. “We didn’t certainly play our best, but we figured out a way to win.”

Navy committed 19 turnovers in the game, including four failed clears, but Pat Ryan helped clean up a lot of the mistakes, making 11 saves.

Patrick Skalniak led the offense with three goals while Arline (2g, 2a), Cole (2g, 2a) and Swanson (1g, 3a) all had four points.

Nichtern had three goals and an assist for Amy (10-3, 5-2) and Reese Burek, Paul Johnson and Jacob Morin each scored twice.

HARVARD UPSETS NO. 3 PRINCETON

Just when you thought the Ivy League couldn’t get any more chaotic, No. 17 Harvard snapped a two-game losing streak, beating No. 3 Princeton 19-16 before an overflow crowd on a sunny day in Cambridge, Mass.

Harvard’s win created a five-team logjam at the top of the Ivy League with Brown, Cornell, Harvard, Princeton and Yale all sporting 3-2 records.

The 19 goals matched a season-high for the Crimson and featured eight goals in the fourth quarter as Harvard rallied for the win. Harvard trailed by as many as five goals in the first half and by two goals in the fourth quarter.

Miles Botkiss led Harvard with four goals and Sam King, Austin Madronic and Andrew Perry all added three goals. Kyle Mullin made 18 saves for the Crimson.

Coulter Mackesy and Alex Slusher each scored four goals for Princeton and Chris Brown had two goals and three assists.

THERIAULT, BROWN STONE CORNELL

Brown knocked off its third straight ranked opponent to further strengthen its postseason aspirations, beating Cornell 13-8.

The Bears (8-4, 3-2) started off red-hot, taking a 6-0 lead after the opening quarter, but then went scoreless in the second quarter as Cornell whittled away at the lead. Brown, ranked 14th in the Nike / USA Lacrosse rankings, led 6-4 at the half.

Brown regained control of the game with three straight goals to open the second half and Cornell was unable to muster much offense against a sterling performance from Brown sophomore goalie Connor Theriault. Evoking memories of some of Brown’s past star netminders, Theriault made a career-best 24 saves, his 11th game with double-digit saves this season.

Brian Antonelli and Devon McLane each had four goals and one assist for Brown. John Piatelli had five goals for Cornell (10-3, 3-2) and Chayse Ierlan made 15 saves.

RUTGERS SURVIVES PENN STATE TEST

A four-goal spurt to start the third quarter gave Penn State a 12-9 lead over No. 4 Rutgers and the Scarlet Knights spent most of the rest of the game playing catch up. But catch up they did, scoring three goals in the final 6:37 of regulation to force overtime before winning 15-14 on Ross Scott’s overtime tally.

Scott’s goal with just 0:08 left in the fourth quarter had forced the overtime and capped a banner day for himself and the Scarlet Knight program.

Scott, who had been held to just one goal in Rutgers last three games combined, matched his career-high with five goals in a game played before 5,223 fans.

Before the game, Rutgers honored the legacy of Tom Hayes, an All-American player at Penn State who won 194 games as Rutgers’ head coach. The Hall of Fame honoree died earlier this year.

BU WINS FIRST PL REGULAR SEASON TITLE

A dramatic goal by Timmy Ley with five seconds left gave Boston University a 9-8 victory over Lehigh and the first regular season Patriot League title in program history.

Lehigh made a late charge in the defensive battle, scoring back-to-back goals just over a minute apart to tie the game 8-8 on Christian Mule’s goal with 1:04 left. With the shot clock winding down, BU had doubled the ball, but quick passing from Lehigh led to Justin Tiernan finding Mule’ for the game-tying goal.

A faceoff violation gave the ball to Boston University (10-3, 7-0 Patriot League) and the Terriers were content to run out most of the clock to take the last shot. Matt Hilburn got the ball to Ley, but with little time or room to operate. Ley wrapped a backhand shot around his defender and bounced home the game-winner.

The goal was the third of the game for Ley, who has a national-best 35-game goal-scoring streak. Vince D’Alto and Thomas Niedringhaus each scored two goals and BU’s Conor Calderone won 13 of 21 faceoffs against Lehigh’s Mike Sisselberger, who came into the game ranked No. 2 in the country in faceoff winning percentage.

Mule’ scored four goals for Lehigh and Tommy Schelling had assists on five of Lehigh’s eight goals. James Spence made 14 saves for the Mountain Hawks (7-5, 5-2).

NOTABLE

  • One of the sport's best rivalries had an unusual outcome — a blowout. No. 1 ranked Maryland continued to show its 2022 dominance, hammering rival Johns Hopkins 22-7 on Homewood Field. (Read more from Patrick Stevens.)

  • No. 2 Georgetown scored a season-high 23 goals to win its eighth straight game, beating St. John’s 23-6.

  • Jeff Conner had a career-high seven points (4g, 3a) and Matt Moore also had seven points (3g, 4a) as No. 5 Virginia outscored Syracuse 21-15. The Cavaliers led 5-1 early and led by as many as 10 goals in the contest.

  • Dylan Gergar scored six goals as No. 10 Penn completed its Ivy League schedule with a 16-12 win over Dartmouth. The Quakers are 3-3 in the Ivy League, one-half game behind the five teams tied ahead of them at 3-2. Penn will need tie-breakers to go its way in order to qualify for the four-team Ivy League tournament.

  • No. 18 Richmond dominated High Point 16-5 in a likely preview of a Southern Conference tournament semifinal match. Zach Vigue made 19 saves for the Spiders and Ryan Lanchbury had five goals and two assists.

  • Towson took over first place in the Colonial Athletic Association with a 12-8 victory at Fairfield. Shane Brennan made 15 saves in the victory for the Tigers (6-7, 3-1 CAA).

  • Tye Kurtz scored eight goals and Mike Robinson scored the game-winner with 10 seconds left as Delaware beat Drexel 16-15. Drexel had scored six fourth quarter goals to tie the game before Robinson’s winner.

  • Evan James scored the final three goals of the game, including a diving score in overtime, as Loyola rallied to beat Colgate 11-10.

  • Brett Dobson continued his magnificent season, making 21 saves in St. Bonaventure’s 10-8 win over Quinnipiac. Dobson now has 206 saves in 12 games this season to lead the country.

  • Hobart and LIU combined for 96 shots in a wild game that saw the Statesmen pull out a 22-19 decision. Derrek Madonna (6g, 2a) and Ryan Archer (3g, 6) did most of the damage for Hobart while LIU was led by Sean Boll (8g), Richie Lacalandra (3g, 6a) and Blake Behlen (4g, 4a).

  • Robert Morris scored three goals in the final five minutes of the game to beat Air Force 11-10. Taggart Clark scored the game-winner with 2:06 left.

HOW THE NIKE/USA LACROSSE TOP 20 FARED

No.1 Maryland defeated Johns Hopkins, 22-7
No. 2 Georgetown defeated St. John’s 23-6
No. 17 Harvard defeated No. 3 Princeton, 19-16
No. 4 Rutgers defeated Penn State, 15-14 (OT)
No. 5 Virginia defeated Syracuse, 21-15
No. 6 Jacksonville defeated Mercer, 17-5
No. 10 Penn defeated Dartmouth, 16-12
No. 14 Brown defeated No. 11 Cornell, 13-8
Navy defeated No. 13 Army, 12-11 (OT)
No. 16 Denver defeated Providence, 16-3
No. 18 Richmond defeated High Point, 16-5
No. 19 Boston University defeated Lehigh, 9-8
No. 20 Saint Joseph’s defeated Sacred Heart, 14-7

ALL SCORES

Boston University 9, Lehigh 8
Brown 13, Cornell 8
Bryant 14, Mount St. Mary’s 7
Delaware 16, Drexel 15
Denver 16, Providence 3
Detroit Mercy 13, Cleveland State 12
Georgetown 23, St. John’s 6
Harvard 19, Princeton 16
Hobart 22, LIU 19
Jacksonville 17, Mercer 5
Loyola 11, Colgate 10 (OT)
Marist 13, Canisius 7
Maryland 22, Johns Hopkins 7
Massachusetts 13, Hofstra 9
Merrimack 8, Wagner 6
Navy 12, Army 11 (OT)
Penn 16, Dartmouth 12
Richmond 16, High Point 5
Robert Morris 11, Air Force 10
Rutgers 15, Penn State 14 (OT)
Saint Joseph’s 14, Sacred Heart 7
Siena 11, Holy Cross 8
St. Bonaventure 10, Quinnipiac 8
Stony Brook 13, UMBC 11
Towson 12, Fairfield 8
Utah 12, Bellarmine 11
Vermont 17, Binghamton 10
Villanova 10, Marquette 8
Virginia 21, Syracuse 15
VMI 21, Hampton 5