When adversity hits, someone different for Army lacrosse may have to step up to save the day.
With Army in the midst of a three-game losing streak, and trailing visiting Lehigh by three goals late in the second quarter, Drew Miller, Aiden Wiesenborn and Michael Harney were among the players who raised their game and essentially stopped the bleeding Saturday.
Miller, a junior long-stick middie, scored three goals, two after halftime, while Wiesenborn, a sophomore, and Harney, a junior, added two goals each to help the Black Knights escape with a 14-11 victory over the Mountain Hawks in a Patriot League game at Michie Stadium.
Army, ranked 18th in the nation, raised its overall record to 7-3 and are 2-2 in the league. Lehigh is 5-5 overall and 3-2 in the Patriot League.
Evan Plunkett and Brayden Fountain also scored twice for Army, while Hill Plunkett had a goal and three assists and goalie Sean Byrne stopped 14 of 25 shots.
“It was just another very good day for the Army team,” said Miller, who was the Suffolk County (NY) player of the year as a senior at Northport High School. “As a team, we just need to maintain the faith in what we are doing on the field and the culture and values that the coaching staff instills in us. If we stick to our guns, we have a great team here.”
Miller added: “All of my goals were assisted and it is just great to have the trust of my teammates that they want to get me the ball.”
Army coach Joe Alberici was not quite as modest as Miller about his play on Saturday. Noting that a long-stick middie is primarily a defensive player, Alberici said that he always knew that Miller had the tools, including a powerful shot, to provide offense when needed.
“He’s a defensive player and scored three goals for us today,” said Alberici, now coaching at Army for 21 years. “I don’t think I have seen three goals from a long-stick middie in all my time here. But it does not surprise me. Drew has a great work ethic, is a 3.9 GPA student and just has such a great instinct on the field. He was a big recruit for us when he decided to come here and is playing a huge role with this team.”
Others helped the Black Knights rebound from an 8-6 halftime deficit. First, Byrne was a wall in the second half, allowing just one very late goal in the third quarter and two in the fourth quarter. Second, faceoff specialist Rob Simone took control of the X in the second half and, third, the Black Knights won most of ground balls in the second half.
It was a great team effort for us,” added Alberici. “Sean was great in the net, Rob Simone stepped in up in the faceoff X and the ground ball play was a big difference maker. When it was tied at 11-11 our guys showed great poise and tenacity to pull out the win.
Army’s three-game losing streak, its longest since the 2018 season and includes losses to Patriot League-rivals Lafayette and Boston University, has made it extremely clear that the only way the Black Knights can reach the coveted NCAA postseason tournament is to win the Patriot League tournament at the end of the season.
But, the league is extremely balanced this season. Six of the league’s nine teams qualify for the tournament and thru Saturday every team is still very much in the running for a spot in the tournament and every team is just as vulnerable to be left out.
“It is halfway through the league schedule and no one is out of it,” said Alberici. “Everyone has a couple of wins and it is a battle between nine teams for those playoff spots. No one thinks they are out of it and that means the next four games will be battles, starting with Bucknell on the road on Saturday. It is going to be one helluva test.”
