#8/10 Black Knights Take Win Streak to Holy Cross

WEST POINT, N.Y. - The No. 8/10 Army West Point men's lacrosse team looks to continue its winning streak with a visit to Holy Cross on Saturday for a Patriot League matchup at 2 p.m.

The game will be live on the Patriot League Network.

HOW TO FOLLOW
TELEVISION • None
RADIO • None
VIDEO • Patriot League Network (Free)
LIVE STATISTICS • GoHolyCross.com
GAME NOTES • Army
TWITTER • ArmyWP_MLax
INSTAGRAM • ArmyWP_MLax

THE OPENING FACEOFF
• The Black Knights and Crusaders matchup for the 27th time in the all-time series on Saturday.
• Army is coming off its second league win of the year with a 6-4 victory at Lehigh last Saturday and then followed that up with a Monday afternoon victory against NJIT by a 19-6 score.
• The Black Knights are looking to go 3-0 in league play for the second straight season and can get out to their best start since 2005 when it won 10 of its first 11 games.
• The Crusaders enter Saturday's game with a 2-4 overall mark and a 2-1 Patriot League.
• Despite the below .500 overall record, Holy Cross is in the middle of the league standings with victories over Lehigh and Bucknell to start its league slate.

DEFENSE IS KEY
• Army comes into Saturday's game as the second-ranked defense in the nation, allowing only 6.57 goals per game.
• This has also allowed the Black Knights to be second in the country in scoring margin as well at 6.57.
• The defense starts with the goalie and AJ Barretto ranks fifth nationally with a 6.95 goals against average.
• Army has allowed six or less goals in five of its seven games with the two double-digit outings coming against teams that are now in the top 10 nationally in Syracuse and Rutgers.

INCHING CLOSER
• Head coach Joe Alberici is one win away from winning his 100th game on the Army sidelines.
• He has won 107 career games as a head coach with 99 coming at Army and eight at SUNY Oneonta.

FACEOFF WEAPON
• Dan Grabher proved to be one of the best faceoff specialist in the nation in the last two games.
• He has won 25 of his last 29 draws, including a 15-of-16 day against NJIT last week.
• Grabher took on Lehigh's Conor Gaffney, who was leading the league in winning percentage, and won 10-of-14 draws and force the Mountain Hawks into two delay of game penalties, which allowed Army to score two goals in 20 seconds to take a one goal lead that it never relinquished.
• He is fourth in the nation with a .679 faceoff percentage and eighth ground balls per game at 8.29 entering Saturday's game.
• Grabher has been named Patriot League Faceoff Specialist of the Week twice this season.

SCOUTING THE CRUSADERS
• Holy Cross had a tough start to the season with three losses to begin the year, but has rebounded with two wins in its last three games.
• The Crusaders have beaten Bucknell and Lehigh in league play and lost to Loyola.
• They are scoring nine goals a game while giving up just over 11 per contest.
• Kevin Lux and Marc Buermann lead the way on the offensive end with 10 goals each, while Lux has added six assists for a team-leading 16 points.
• Jon Vogel is always a threat to score and has nine goals and four assists for 13 points.
• In net, Jonathan Tesoro has an 11.30 goals against average in his first season as the starting goalie. He has a .446 save percentage with 54 saves in six games.

SERIES HISTORY
• This is the 27th meeting between these two Patriot League foes and Army has a commanding lead at 26-1 in the series.
• The last meeting in Worcester was the Crusaders' first win in the series as Holy Cross came away with a 7-6 win in 2015.
• Army was ranked ninth in the nation in 2015 when it lost in 2015.
• The Black Knights are 11-1 all-time at Holy Cross.

#8/10 Black Knights Take Win Streak to Holy Cross

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Players Mentioned

AJ Barretto

Dan Grabher

Army West Point Athletics