Robert Simone and Alec Vaccaro are making it a bit easier for Army men’s lacrosse coach Joe Alberici and all Black Knights fans to sleep at night.
Army’s two backup faceoff specialists filled in nicely for the injured all-American Will Coletti Saturday, helping the Black Knights to an easy 17-4 victory over host Holy Cross in Worchester, Mass. The victory moved No. 5 ranked Army to 6-0 overall and 2-0 in the Patriot League. Holy Cross fell to 3-4 overall and 1-1 in the Patriot League. With the win, combined with losses by Notre Dame and Cornell, the Black Knights are likely to move as high as third when the national polls are released Monday.
With Coletti week-to-week with a lower body injury suffered in last week’s win over Lafayette, Alberici alternated the two backups to maximum effectiveness against the Crusaders. Simone, a sophomore, won 10 of 15 faceoffs, grabbed eight groundballs and for the second straight game, scored a goal. Vaccaro, a senior, won five of 10 faceoffs and grabbed three groundballs.
“All of us on the faceoff team rely on each other,” said Simone, who was highly recruited by a number of schools out of Lawrenceville Prep in New Jersey two years ago. “Every week in practice, the four of us, Will, Alec, Pat (Murphy) and myself, look to help each other improve. And, we do the same thing during fall practice and spring practice. We have the best faceoff specialists in the country here and working with each other just makes each of us better.”
Alberici said that like everyone on the team the backup faceoff specialists know they may have to fill in when needed in a pinch.
“They both had great games today,” Alberici said. “Robert knows his role on this team. He is playing behind Will but he still has to be ready to come off the bench when needed and do the job. Both of them showed that today and I know both of them will be able to step up if we need them in future games.”
After a sluggish start, the Black Knights scored nine straight goals in the second quarter to take a 12-2 lead into halftime. Still up by double-digits midway through the third quarter, Alberici pulled most of his starters.
“It was a tough environment out there today,” Alberici said. “It was a cold and windy day, but we were able to hold Holy Cross scoreless for 35 straight minutes in the middle of the game. We really put the clamps on them defensively.”
Army outshot Holy Cross, 28-15 and three Black Knight goalies starter Sean Byrne, Evan Richardson and Bennett Ong each made five saves. Offensively, Jackson Eicher and Brayden Fountain each scored four goals and Evan Plunkett notched three goals. Eicher had five assists and Fountain had three assists. Finn McCullough scored two goals for the Black Knights.
Army travels to defending league champion Lehigh on Saturday for a noon start against the Mountain Hawks, who, despite a 2-4 record, are considered one of the best teams in the Patriot League again this year.
