Men's Lacrosse Falls in Patriot League Title Game

Sunday, May 1

Annapolis, MD

1 PM

Army West Point

10-6

Loyola

12-3

Army West Point

Loyola

Men's Lacrosse Falls in Patriot League Title Game

May 01, 2016 | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score

ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Second-seeded and 10th-ranked Loyola jumped out to a 6-2 lead at the end of the first quarter and earned the Patriot League Championship with a 14-6 win over the Army West Point men's lacrosse on Sunday afternoon at Navy-Marine Corps Stadium.

Army (10-6) made the championship game for the second-straight year after beating Navy in the semifinals. The six goals scored by the Black Knights were from six different goal scorers. Connor Cook, Nate Jones and Ted Glesener finished with two points each with a goal and an assist apiece. Cole Johnson extended his point streak to 35 games with a goal. AJ Barretto stopped five shots in the loss.

Loyola (12-3) got an impressive effort from rookie Pat Spencer with 10 points on five goals and five assists. The 10 points ties the Patriot League record for points in a tournament game with 10 points. Will Sands of Bucknell did it in this year's tournament as well. Classmate Jake Stover finished the day with 10 saves.

"Congratulations to Charlie Toomey, his staff and the whole Loyola team," said Army head coach Joe Alberici. "I thought they were terrific again today. I don't know what they were like at the beginning of the year, but they were good enough to beat Johns Hopkins and Virginia, but I know two of the best performances this year were against Army."

The game started fast for the Black Knights with Dan Grabher scoring eight seconds in, but Loyola finished the first quarter with six of the final seven goals and had a 6-2 lead at the end of one. David Symmes found the net for Army for the second time in the tournament for the Black Knights' other goal in the frame.

The Greyhounds were able to keep the lead at 7-4 going into the break, but Army sliced the lead down by one with goals from Glesener and Johnson. Johnson scored during a man-up situation with an assist to Nate Jones, while Glesener scored on a bomb from 15 yards out with a helper from Cook. Spencer led the way for Loyola with four points on two goals and two assists.

Loyola came out scored the first four goals of the third quarter and began to pull away. Spencer, Herreweyers, Sherlock and Jay Drapeau were the four to score for the Greyhounds. Cook netted his 24th of the season to stop the run, but Spencer tallied the hat trick to finish the scoring in the third quarter with Loyola leading 12-5.

Spencer added another goal in the fourth quarter for his ninth point of the game to make it 13-5. Shea Mullins got the Black Knights on the board for the second time in the final half with his seventh of the year to cut the lead to 13-6. Spencer closed out the scoring with his 10th point of the game and his fifth goal and Loyola won the title with a 14-6 victory.

Cook, Johnson and Sam Finney were voted onto the Patriot League All-Tournament Team. Graham Savio of Loyola was selected as the Tournament's Most Valuable Player.

Next up for the Black Knights is the season finale at Notre Dame on May 8 at 12 p.m.

Game Notes: This was the sixth meeting all-time between Loyola and Army … Loyola leads the series 4-2 after winning both games this season … it was the second meeting in the Patriot League Tournament and first in the championship game … the series is tied at 1-1 in the postseason … Grabher scored eight seconds into the game, which was the first goal by Army on the opening draw since 2015 against Loyola at Michie Stadium … Johnson extended his point streak to 35 games with his goal in the second quarter … Grabher scored his 10th goal of the season after coming into the year with one career goal … Cook scored for the fourth-straight game and has six goals in those four contests … the Black Knights were held to single digits for the fifth time this season and Loyola has held Army to 10 goals or less two of them … Army falls to 8-11 all-time in the Patriot League Tournament.