The men’s lacrosse team closed its regular season with a win against Lehigh University before making history on Tuesday night with a quarterfinal win against sixth-seeded Navy to secure a spot in the semifinals and the first Patriot League tournament win in program history.
Looking to close the regular season on a high, the Leopards (5-3 Patriot League, 10-5 overall) traveled to Lehigh (4-4 Patriot League, 5-10 overall) on Friday night for a match that would secure them home-field advantage in the first round of the playoffs. The team took a commanding 6-2 lead in the first quarter and did not look back: four players had multi-goal games, including a hat trick from freshman midfielder Nicholas Blalock.
The Maroon and White beat Lehigh 12-7, securing their first win over the Mountain Hawks since 2009. The win set the stage for a home quarterfinal clash against Navy (4-4 Patriot League, 8-7 overall), a team that had bested them earlier this season.
Coming out of the gate on fire on Tuesday, the Leopards registered five unanswered goals to open up a massive advantage in the first quarter. Senior midfielder Liam Sargent scored the signature goal, pulling away from the Navy defense before receiving the ball from senior attacker Riley Sullivan and firing the ball behind his back to score.
The hot start was a direct contrast to Lafayette’s last effort against the Midshipmen, in which the team found themselves down 5-1 in the first quarter and down 9-2 at the end of the half. The team made a point to start Tuesday’s quarterfinal on the front foot, according to Blalock.
“That was the first thing we said going into this week,” he said. “We watched film on where we needed to improve, what we did in the second half of that game that helped us come back a little bit into it and how we could start that way.”
However, the big Leopard lead started to unravel in the second quarter, as Navy took control of the momentum and rattled off a 4-1 quarter to send the teams into the break at 6-4.
“We knew our game plan was good,” Blalock said. “Second quarter, the ball just fell their way a few more times. So it was one of those messages of ‘stay calm, stay cool, keep going.’”
Navy nabbed the opening goal of the second half, pulling themselves within one goal at 6-5 and heightening the tension inside Fisher Stadium. With Navy breathing down the Leopards’ necks, they re-established control off an incredible play from freshman attacker Joshua Heaney.
After a misplaced pass from the Leopards looked to be rolling out of bounds, Heaney dove and, at full extension, managed to keep the ball in play, shaking off two defenders to keep possession for Lafayette. Eventually, the ball would make its way to Sullivan, who fed Blalock to score his second of the game to make it 7-5.
“That goal was all my teammates,” Blalock said. “I saw the ball swinging to Riley on the back side, and I just cut. He found me on the crease, and I had a one-on-one with the goal and it was easy from there.”
The Leopards would not look back from that moment, holding Navy scoreless for the rest of the game. It was another stellar performance from junior goalkeeper Joe Doherty, who recorded 18 saves on 23 shots on goal for a save percentage of 0.783, his highest mark of the season.
“My defense did a great job of giving me the shots I wanted to see,” Doherty said. “We just stuck to our game plan. We came out hot defensively and did our jobs.”
The Leopards added two more goals en route to a 9-5 win, marking a historic set of firsts for Lafayette lacrosse: first-ever Patriot League tournament victory, first-ever 10-win season and first win against Navy since 2017.
“We’ve worked so hard for this the past couple of years, and this year especially,” Doherty said. “All the guys before, the guys who have even graduated, they all laid the foundation for this.”
The Leopards now head to Boston to take on No. 2 Boston University, in a rematch of Lafayette’s upset win earlier this month.
“We know what the game plan is,” Blalock said. “Last year, we beat them, we beat them again this year, I think that’s a team that we wanted to see again.”
