Army men’s lacrosse defenseman John Sullivan said his team was on a mission Wednesday when the Black Knights travelled to No. 16 Yale in a key early-season non-conference game.
Stop Chris Lyons and Leo Johnson, two Bulldogs who together accounted for 102 goals in the 2023 season, but sat out last year with injuries.
Mission accomplished.
With another excellent defensive performance and the superb play of junior goalie Sean Byrne, who stopped 16 of 19 shots, No. 8 Army dominated Yale, 14-3, to move its record to 3-0 on the season. As for Lyons and Johnson, each were held pointless by AJ Pilate and Sullivan, respectively.
“First, let me say that Sean is doing an incredible job in the net for us,” said Sullivan, a junior from Nashua, N.H. who has started for Army since his freshman year. “He stopped 84 percent of the shots against him and that is unheard of in lacrosse. Then AJ did an outstanding job against Lyons, who is their No. 1 player and the other guys on defense, like Ryan Nixon, and our defensive midfielders really stepped up too.”
Sullivan did not do too badly himself. He also held Johnson, who scored 40 goals in 2023, to no points and was a major presence on the field.
“AJ and John Sullivan were just outstanding today,” said Army coach Joe Alberici. “They shut down their two best players and had dominating performances. As for Sean Byrne, he was simply the best player on the field, with those 16 saves.”
But, this is a balanced and veteran Army team. Alberici was quick to add that a number of other defensive players, including Christian Mazur, CJ Monturio, Casey Reynolds, Billy Adams, and Keagan Treacy, as well as Nixon, played big roles in the victory.
“They played like a team out there today,” Alberici added.
With faceoff specialist Will Coletti scoring a goal just seconds into the contest to put Army ahead 1-0, the Black Knights raced out to a 7-0 lead late in the first quarter. Yale managed to close the gap to 7-2, but the Army defense was simply too much for the Bulldogs and the Army offense, which had 25 shots on goal, simply kept the pressure on all game.
Offensively, Army freshman Brayden Fountain continued his early-season success, increasing his total to 11 goals with a hat trick. Junior Gunnar Fellows also scored three goals and senior Jackson Eicher had two goals and two assists. Junior Evan Plunkett, the preseason all-American, scored two goals.
“Evan Plunkett just attracted so much attention that it opened more opportunities for other players,” Alberici said. “Fountain continues to make the plays and, today, Gunnar Fellows, who did not practice this week due to a lower body injury, was just terrific. They kept the pressure on him and he handled it perfectly every time.”
Army looks to stay perfect when it travels to Florida to play Mercer Saturday at noon.
“It is just one game at a time for us,” said Sullivan. “Each game we bring our energy and effort into focus and we rely on a culture here that is all about winning as a team. All 60-plus guys on our team know their roles and know that this is a long season.”
