HAMILTON, N.Y. (3/23/08)—Navy held Colgate scoreless for 49:50 and scored eight unanswered to earn an 8-3 victory over the Raiders in Patriot League men’s lacrosse action this afternoon. Navy goaltender Tommy Phelan registered a career-high 13 saves in his first career start.  

 

The Raiders fall to 4-4 overall for the season and 1-1 in Patriot League action, while the eighth-ranked Midshipmen improve to 8-1 overall and 5-0 in conference play. It was Colgate’s first game of the season at Andy Kerr Stadium.

 

Colgate senior Matt Lalli (Princeton Junction, N.J.) led the Raiders with two goals and junior Brandon Corp (Chittenango, N.Y.) pushed his scoring streak to 24 games with one tally. The Midshipmen had three players with at least two goals, with Nick Mirabito leading all scorers with three goals and an assist.

 

Defense was the name of the game in the opening quarter with Colgate and Navy heading into the first intermission tied at one. Lalli got the scoring started at the 9:16 mark as he beat the Navy defender to the crease and slipped it past goaltender Tommy Phelan.

 

Navy’s Tim Paul evened the score three minutes later when he capitalized on a Colgate turnover and fired a shot past the stick of Raider goalie Tim Harrington (Lutherville, Md.).

 

The second and third quarters belonged to the Midshipmen as Navy scored six unanswered with three in each quarter. Paul put away a Mirabito pass from behind the cage to give Navy a 2-1 lead 2:03 into the second frame and Mirabito had a goal of his own just over three minutes later to make it a 3-1 game.

 

The Midshipmen took advantage of a man-up opportunity less than two minutes later, getting a tally from Patrick Moran on the one-minute penalty. The score gave Navy a 7-1 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

 

Colgate stopped the Navy attack throughout much of the fourth quarter, but was unable to get the offense going to cut into the six-goal deficit. The Midshipmen made it 8-1 at the 4:42 mark on a score from Geoff Leone.

 

Corp got on the scoreboard for the Raiders with 54 seconds left on an unassisted goal. Eighteen seconds later, Lalli added his second goal of the game when he flipped the ball past Phelan behind his back from his knees.

 

Senior Chris Eck (Fairfield, Conn.) was 8-of-14 from the faceoff “X” and picked up two groundballs. Navy’s Mikelis Visgauss was 7-of-13 on restarts and had five pickups. Corp and Corey Hinton (Niskayuna, N.Y.) had a team-high three groundballs for Colgate.

 

Sophomore Tim Harrington (Lutherville, Md.) made 12 saves in all 60 minutes of action.

 

The Raiders continue Patriot League play at Army on March 29. That game is set for 1 p.m., in West Point.