By Seth Mendelson/CaMMVets Media
4-21-2025
The regular season all comes down to one game for the Army men’s lacrosse team. A 4:30 p.m. start on Friday at Michie Stadium against a surging Loyola (Md.) team that could decide if the Black Knights finish at the top of the Patriot League standings and get the coveted opportunity to host the final two rounds of the league’s postseason tournament next week.
Army put itself in position to determine its own fate by defeating a pesky Bucknell team, 20-11, behind seven goals by senior Jackson Eicher and five goals by junior Gunnar Fellows on Senior Day Saturday at Michie Stadium. Eight other Black Knights also scored, including four (Andrew Miller, Tim Johnson, Mike Harney and Grant Masterson) who tallied their first goals of the season.
Army, which is ranked fourth in the nation with an 11-1 record, actually has two different ways to claim the Patriot League regular season title. First, the Black Knights can defeat Loyola, which has won three games in a row including dismantling Navy last Friday. The second is if Colgate defeats Boston University in a late afternoon game on Friday in Boston. If neither happens, Boston University would be crowned league champions based on its overtime victory over Army in early April.
“At the very beginning of the year Loyola lost five one-goal games to the likes of Maryland and Johns Hopkins,” said Army coach Joe Alberici. “They are a young team that did not have its formula. More recently, they have gone to zone defense, getting good goalie play, getting good faceoff play and their young guys on the offensive end have really started to mature. Watching the Navy game, they looked very slick. It is going to be a great game. We excited to have them here at Michie Stadium and on national television with CBS Sports.”
In the second game of a doubleheader at Michie Stadium, the Army women’s team defeated Bucknell, 16-6, to clinch second place in the Patriot League regular season, which guarantees the team a first-round bye.
Army put itself in position to determine its own fate by defeating a pesky Bucknell team, 20-11, behind seven goals by senior Jackson Eicher and five goals by junior Gunnar Fellows on Senior Day Saturday at Michie Stadium. Eight other Black Knights also scored, including four (Andrew Miller, Tim Johnson, Mike Harney and Grant Masterson) who tallied their first goals of the season.
Army, which is ranked fourth in the nation with an 11-1 record, actually has two different ways to claim the Patriot League regular season title. First, the Black Knights can defeat Loyola, which has won three games in a row including dismantling Navy last Friday. The second is if Colgate defeats Boston University in a late afternoon game on Friday in Boston. If neither happens, Boston University would be crowned league champions based on its overtime victory over Army in early April.
“At the very beginning of the year Loyola lost five one-goal games to the likes of Maryland and Johns Hopkins,” said Army coach Joe Alberici. “They are a young team that did not have its formula. More recently, they have gone to zone defense, getting good goalie play, getting good faceoff play and their young guys on the offensive end have really started to mature. Watching the Navy game, they looked very slick. It is going to be a great game. We excited to have them here at Michie Stadium and on national television with CBS Sports.”
In the second game of a doubleheader at Michie Stadium, the Army women’s team defeated Bucknell, 16-6, to clinch second place in the Patriot League regular season, which guarantees the team a first-round bye.
All photos: ARMY ATHLETICS
The Army’s men’s team was leading 7-4 in the second quarter before Bucknell closed that edge to just one goal midway through the period. That is when the Black Knights took command of the game, grabbing an 11-7 lead at halftime and going up 18-9 after three periods.
“I was really happy with us, offensively in particular, with 20 goals,” Alberici said. “It is not easy to get. Bucknell played with desperation (trying to make the league playoffs) and are a highly talented team. I think they are 11th in the country in goals scored and we knew they had a lot of fire power was very happy with our guys, particularly in the second half. Just the way they dominated the ground game. We were pretty efficient in those 20 goals in both the transition game and six-on-six.”
A crowd of more than 4,000 also saw Army’s All-American faceoff specialist Will Coletti set a Patriot League record for career faceoff wins during the game. His 19 faceoffs wins against the Bucknell moved Coletti’s total to 750 in his career at Army.
“I will just shout out the unit first because it is not a one-on-one, it is a three-on-three,” Coletti said. “Christian Fornier, Christian Mazur and Ryan Nixon have been on the wings with me since freshman year. There is a lot of chemistry going on with those three guys and I don’t look at this my individual record. I look at it as our record.”
Allison Reilly led the women’s team to its 12th victory in 14 games this year. The Army junior scored six goals and had six assists in defeating Bucknell. Classmate Brigid Duffy scored three goals for the Black Knights, who are ranked 19th in the nation.
The Army women’s team hosts Colgate on Wednesday, starting at 5 p.m.
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A crowd of more than 4,000 also saw Army’s All-American faceoff specialist Will Coletti set a Patriot League record for career faceoff wins during the game. His 19 faceoffs wins against the Bucknell moved Coletti’s total to 750 in his career at Army.
“I will just shout out the unit first because it is not a one-on-one, it is a three-on-three,” Coletti said. “Christian Fornier, Christian Mazur and Ryan Nixon have been on the wings with me since freshman year. There is a lot of chemistry going on with those three guys and I don’t look at this my individual record. I look at it as our record.”
Allison Reilly led the women’s team to its 12th victory in 14 games this year. The Army junior scored six goals and had six assists in defeating Bucknell. Classmate Brigid Duffy scored three goals for the Black Knights, who are ranked 19th in the nation.
The Army women’s team hosts Colgate on Wednesday, starting at 5 p.m.
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