ANNAPOLIS, Md. - A balanced attack and a stifling defense led the 12th-ranked Navy men's lacrosse team (1-0) to a 10-2 victory over VMI (0-1) Saturday afternoon at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis. Saturday's game marked the earliest Navy has played a season-opener, while it was also the first game on tap this season in Division I lacrosse.

"I thought it was a pretty good opening game," said an upbeat Richie Meade who led the Mids to their seventh straight win in a season-opener. "We played of lot of players today ... a lot of inexperienced players which showed early in the game. We have a lot of guys that are playing significant roles for the first time, so it was a great opportunity to get on the field and work through it.

"The question is do you play Feb. 9 on what turned out to be a beautiful day or a Wednesday in April during exam week and having to travel. Sometimes it's a roll of the dice, but for us, it was the best option. It's not really that early truthfully. We've been playing for three weeks and we thought this option was what was best for our team."

In addition to fielding questions about the early start, heading into the game there were plenty of questions as to who would step in and replace Dingman, Looney, Wallin and Wallace, named the fans have become familiar with over the years. The Mids did a nice job of answering the questions by using a balanced offensive attack that featured eight different players scoring Navy's 10 goals, including four first-time scorers.

"I'm confident in our offensive players and while we graduated some very good ones, we also have some very good players on the team now. It's going to be a matter of getting comfortable with one another and today we had the opportunity to get a lot of guys game experience."

And while the offense did its job by putting up double digits on the scoreboard, so, too, did the defense which suffocated VMI's offensive game plan and held the Keydets to just a pair of goals. The Mids took advantage of a veteran defensive lineup, featuring two-time All-American Jordan DiNola (Ballston Lake, N.Y.), in holding one of the most proficient goal scorers in the country, senior attack Kevin Hill, to just a goal.

"If you hold a team to two goals, that's good defense," said Meade, whose defensive squads have traditionally been one of the best in the country. "I don't care who you are playing, that's a solid effort."

Navy opened up a 3-0 lead after the first 15 minutes of play with sophomore attack Tim Paul (Parkton, Md.) punching in the season's first goal for the Mids at the 8:27 mark. The play was cued by first-year starting keeper Matt Coughlin (Brightwaters, N.Y.) whose outlet pass to mid-field field set up the goal. A few quick one-timers around and rookie attack Andy Warner (Corning, N.Y.) saw Paul cutting to the crease and Paul popped it in over VMI keeper Sean McCoy's shoulder.

Navy's next two goals were near mirror images of one another as sophomore middie Patrick Moran (Annapolis, Md.) rippled the back of the next from 10 yards out at 7:20, followed by junior midfielder Shane Durkin's (Germantown, Md.) first-collegiate goal from just outside of 10 yards.

VMI finally got on the board when Hill made a sensational move curling around the backside of the goal and shooting the ball as he left his feet. Horizontal to the goal, Hill somehow threaded the ball between the defender and Coughlin to narrow the margin to two (3-1) with more than 10:30 remaining in the second quarter.

1 2 3    Next  »

2008-02-09