Navy men’s lacrosse coach Richie Meade doesn’t want to hear about Lafayette’s record from last year.
It doesn’t matter to Meade that the Leopards — who host the Mids today at 1 p.m. — were 2-10 last season and 8-45 the last four years under coach Terry Mangan. What Meade is concentrating on is the 23 returning letterman back this season and a young team he thinks is poised to make some noise in the Patriot League this year.
“I’m very impressed with the way Terry Mangan has been working with the program,” Meade said. “This year you could start to see the result of all that work.”
Lafayette (0-1) enters today’s game trying to bounce back from a season-opening 8-5 loss to Villanova. Navy (1-0) comes to Center Valley, Pa. a week after defeating St. Joseph’s, 10-3, in Annapolis. Today’s game marks the first Patriot League game of the season for both teams.
The Leopards rely a lot on some key sophomores, including attack John Galassi, who had 18 goals last season, and goalie Jeff Canfield. Canfield had 14 saves in last week’s loss.
Meade said he is also concerned about junior attack Andrew Horton (5 goals, 13 assists in 2006) and senior midfielder Sean Burek, who had 16 goals last season. Horton had a goal and an assist against Villanova.
“Lafayette could have easily won that game last week,” Meade said. “Their goalie plays like a veteran and that kid Burek has been tough for them for a number of years. They play with a lot of attitude and I have no illusions that this is going to be an easy game for us.”
One of the big question marks for Navy going into this season was at goal where senior Colin Finnegan had to step in and replace last year’s starter Matt Russell. Finnegan answered at least some of those questions against St. Joseph’s when he had nine saves in his first collegiate start. Finnegan had seen action in 13 games over his career, including in the 2004 NCAA title game against Syracuse.
NAVY NOTES
» Navy senior goalie Colin Finnegan earned Patriot League goalkeeper of the week honors for his nine-save performance last Saturday in the Mids’ 10-3 win over St.Joseph’s.
» Navy sophomore defensive midfielder Geoff Leone was named the Patriot League’s defensive player of the week as he played strong in the middle of the field against the Hawks. His efforts have helped pace a Navy defense that has not allowed more than 10 goals in 15 of its last 16 games.
