Nothing is impossible anymore for Navy after the men’s lacrosse team ended its 35-year losing streak to Johns Hopkins with Saturday’s 9-8 overtime win in Annapolis.
The similarities are plentiful with Navy football’s not-so-competitive rivalry with Notre Dame — and not just for the seemingly endless term of futility. It was 43 years before the Midshipmen toppled the Fighting Irish in 2007 by a score of 46-44, also in overtime.
Both teams also have had multiple close calls over the last decade, with the lacrosse team undone by six one-goal losses to the Blue Jays in eight years from 2000 to 2007. Meanwhile, the heavily favored Irish football team escaped Navy by a touchdown or less in 1999, 2002 and 2003. And in both football and lacrosse, the Mids finally have capitalized on down years for their opponents. That’s not their fault.
Now what? It’s gotta be national title or bust. Navy lost 14-13 to Syracuse in the 2004 national final. Could it be football’s turn to crash the BCS party?
