BALTIMORE – The U.S. Military Academy broke a 10-10 game with two goals before the midway point of the fourth quarter on Friday night, and the Black Knights held off Loyola University Maryland for a 13-11 victory in the teams' Patriot League finale.
Loyola will play Tuesday, April 30, in the Patriot League Championships Quarterfinal Round in a 6 p.m. game at the U.S. Naval Academy.
The Greyhounds tied the game at 10-10 with a
Matthew Minicus goal at 9:23 in the third quarter, but then neither team scored for almost 15 minutes.
The 12
th-ranked Black Knights broke through 4:31 into the fourth quarter when Gunnar Fellows scored inside on a Jackson Eicher assist, and Reese Burek tacked on another goal less than two minutes later, scoring his fourth of the game with 8:35 to play.
Loyola narrowed the gap to one, 12-11, with 4:43 left in regulation when
Adam Poitras skipped a pass from goal-line extended to
Joey Kamish at left point, and Kamish hit the top, right corner to bring Loyola within a goal.
Army West Point got possession with a faceoff win after Kamish's goal, and after clearing the ball to the offensive end, Eicher got his hands free on the top left and converted a Ryan Sposito assist for a goal with 3:27 on the clock, extending the lead to a pair.
Eicher had a chance to increase the lead to three with a shot at 2:14, but
Luke Staudt made a save for Loyola.
The Greyhounds called a timeout after the ball went out of bounds to set up a ride with Staudt pulled from the goal and across the midline. Loyola forced a wide shot by Evan Plunkett at 1:57, and then
Max McGillicuddy stepped into the crease and save a nearly point-blank Plunkett shot to preserve the two-goal margin.
Loyola cleared to its offensive end after the McGillicuddy play, but two shots went off cage. Army was whistled for a 30-second holding penalty with 41 seconds left, but Black Knights goalkeeper Sean Byrne made a save on a Kamish shot. The Black Knights' clear failed, but Loyola could not convert into a goal in the final seconds.
Poitras finished with six points on four goals and two assists, recording his seventh-straight game with a hat trick and 10
th-consecutive outing with three or more points.
Evan James had his sixth-straight hat trick,s coring all three in the first quarter.
Loyola took a 4-3 lead midway through the first quarter when
Henry Haberman shook off a check and used his defender as a screen to score from 12-plus yards out.
The Black Knights, however, came back with two in a row from Plunkett and Eicher, taking a 5-4 lead with 2:18 left in the quarter.
James would score unassisted with 1:27 on the first-quarter clock, tying the game at 5-5, and then goals by Poitras and
Matt Heuston 30 seconds apart in the second quarter put Loyola in front, 7-5, with 12:05 to go before halftime.
Army West Point scored four in a row in the span of less than two minutes, however, going up, 9-7, on a Jacob Morin goal at 10:14.
Poitras scored with a feed from 'X' by
Davis Lindsey with 11 ticks to go before the break, and the teams went to the locker room with Loyola trailing by one.
Morin scored the second half's first goal 49 seconds in, but Poitras and Minicus scored at 10:29 and 9:23 in the third, and the game was knotted at 10-10.
Loyola forced 18 Army West Point turnovers in the game. Staudt had a career-high three caused turnovers to lead the Greyhounds, and he also posted 14 saves. Staudt also had a team-high six ground balls.
