Box Score

BALTIMORE – Stadium tour, complete. Service academy stretch, just getting started.

The Peter Baum-Ryan Walsh combination recorded matching hat tricks for the fourth consecutive game, and Colgate overwhelmed Navy 11-3 here Saturday at the Konica Minolta Face-Off Classic.

A crowd of 10,487 at the home of the Super Bowl-champion Baltimore Ravens saw the Raiders win their fourth game in a row and improve to 7-2 overall, 2-0 in the Patriot League. Last Sunday, Colgate defeated Michigan at Citi Field, home of the New York Mets.

“It's a great experience,” Walsh said of the stadium games. “It helped playing in Citi Field the week before so we didn't come in today with the open eyes or shell-shocked feel. It definitely was cool playing in a football stadium.

“Our experienced seniors reminded us to make sure we didn't get all flustered, and we adjusted pretty well. It showed today.”

Walsh, actually, made it five straight games with at least three goals scored after matching his career high with seven points against the Midshipmen. The sophomore attackman had four goals and three assists and now has scored a goal in 25 consecutive games.

Walsh was named player of the game.

“When you go into every game and the opposing defenses' whole game plans are focused around stopping Pete, it takes more than two guys to do that,” said Walsh, who has 24 goals and eight assists this year. “It opens opportunities for the rest of us to score easy goals.

“They're not going to come off Pete and it just opens up a lot for guys on our team. We capitalized on it today.”

Baum Benefits
Baum also benefited from Walsh's big day to score three of his own for the 32nd time in his career. The senior captain leads the Raiders this season with 26 goals and 37 points, and now has 156 goals and 213 points for his Colgate career.

“They came out with the game plan to try and keep the ball out of my stick,” Baum said. “They tried to flush it really quick; but when we got the ball to Ryan on the back side, there was really no one left to slide.

“And he's absolutely impossible to cover with just one guy. He's just way too big. He got right on top of their goalie and really had some good opportunities.”

Still, Raiders head coach Mike Murphy is not quite ready to limit his offensive capabilities to just Baum and Walsh.

“Our attack accounted for eight of our 11 goals, which is good. As they go, our offense goes,” he said. “But I don't know that we're a two-trick pony. We're doing a good job of getting everybody motivated on the offensive of the field.

“We need to be able to have that 1-2 punch in our attack, but we also got our middies involved today. Jimmy Ryan had another two-goal day, which was good. Matt Clarkson had some good shots, and Matt Baker had some good opportunities in the extra-man.”

4-0 and No TV
The Raiders got off to a quick start. So quick, in fact, that it was 4-0 before the ESPNU telecast switched to Baltimore from the NCAA Wrestling Championships.

What the nation's lacrosse fans missed was a four-goal Raiders flurry over the first eight minutes. Ryan scored on his patented wide-up-and-fire with 12:19 showing, and then Baum got on the board by bouncing one home after a nice juke move.

Colgate then scored twice in seven seconds thanks to some nifty passing. Walsh first found Brendon McCann for his 11th goal of the year.

Robert Grabher then won the ensuing face-off, advanced it quickly toward goal and dished to McCann, who returned to favor to Walsh for the first of the sophomore's four goals. The Raiders led 4-0 with still 7:04 left in the first quarter.

Navy cut the deficit in half, but Walsh ended a Colgate mini-drought by scoring again just past the midway point of the second quarter. Ryan's second of the game, another laser just inside the crossbar from about 35 feet out, sent the teams to the locker room at 6-2 Colgate.

Shutout Quarter
The Raiders defense tightened the screws in the second half. Walsh sandwiched a pair of goals around a Baum tally, which Walsh assisted, while Colgate's defense posted its second shutout quarter in as many Patriot League games.

The Raiders blanked Holy Cross in the second period of their March 9 game in Hamilton.

“Bobby Lawrence, James Queeney and Matt Yeager, against that attack, did a really good job today of limiting those guys and forcing them into bad shots,” Murphy said. “Obviously they were forcing turnovers, getting ground balls and giving us a chance on the other end.

”Bobby's been playing some of his best lacrosse over the last three games, Jimmy's been very consistent over the course of the season, Yeager's starting to get back into form where he was last year as he is coming off an injury.”

Lawrence, Queeney, Kevin Boyle and goalkeeper Conor Murphy all picked up four ground balls apiece, with Lawrence causing three of Navy's 21 turnovers and Boyle a career-high four. The Raiders won the ground ball category 35-27.

In the fourth quarter, Baum completed his hat trick with an extra-man tally before Geoffrey Sullivan scored his third of the year to make it 11-2. Navy finally got one back with 8:55 left to end a Colgate defensive effort that kept the Mids off the board for 31 minutes and 2 seconds.

Midfield Adjustment
Murphy also noticed his team's improved effort in the midfield.

“I'm very pleased with our No. 2 midfield line,” he said. “Justin Kirchner coming off an injury is getting back to midseason form. Eric Foote had a nice day today, and Geoffrey Sullivan continues to do some good things.

“That line's going to grind out some minutes for us and did a good job today.”

Navy, 3-6 and 1-3, scored the fewest goals by a Colgate opponent since the Raiders beat the Midshipmen 5-4 two years ago in Annapolis. It also matched the fewest goals scored by Navy in the 16-game series against Colgate, since the Raiders won 6-3 in 2006.

Shots were 36-30 Colgate, while Navy won the face-off battle 10-8. Clears were an issue for the Raiders, who converted only 19-of-29 to Navy's 14-of-20. Colgate forced 21 Midshipmen turnovers, but committed 20. Both teams were 1-of-4 on extra-man opportunities.

Colgate is home next Sunday against Army in a Patriot League matchup. Start time is noon from Andy Kerr Stadium, with the CBS Sports Network televising the game.

“Any time you take on a service academy, you know those guys are going to play you for 60,” Murphy said. “If you don't bring your A-game, you're going to be in trouble. Our guys did a really good job today on the defensive end.

“But we're going to need them to be even better next week, because the Army attack is much like ours. It will be a very interesting game because we are very similar offensively.”