No. 12 Navy's 15-8 setback to Patriot League rival Lafayette Friday night was compounded by the absence of two defensive starters.
Senior long-stick midfielder Jaren Woeppel, the Patriot League's preseason Defensive Player of the Year, sat out with a hamstring injury and is listed as day-to-day. The prognosis is even more dire for senior short-stick defensive midfielder Joe McAuliffe, who could miss as many as the team's next six games after suffering a Lisfranc sprain in his foot.
"Joe's going to be out for a month," coach Richie Meade said. "He's got a Lisfranc sprain. Could have been a lot more serious if it was a break. It would have been a season-ending injury. But he's working through that. Jaren's situation is kind of day-to-day. We thought he might be able to play on Friday night, but he's got a little tweak of a hamstring, and we didn't want to risk him on Friday night – partly because we didn't think he could be effective and part of it was we were playing on AstroTurf, which we never play on and is a hard surface. I just didn't think it was in our best interest to do that."
McAuliffe's absence could mean more playing time for a pair of freshmen in Jordan Seivold and Bucky Smith, both of whom played in Friday night's loss. Senior Zack Schroeder will replace Woeppel, but he played against Lafayette despite dealing with what Meade called an acute back injury that may require surgery after the season.
Coupled with the season-ending loss of senior attackman Tim Paul (torn right anterior cruciate ligament) and freshman midfielder Jay Mann (collarbone), the Midshipmen have been bitten by the injury bug. But Meade pointed out that injuries aren't limited to Annapolis.
"That's all stuff you've got to kind of work through," he said. "Injuries are a little disruptive, but it's not an excuse. I don't think injuries may be a part of this, but the other part of this is we've got to execute better at both ends of the field. Offensively, we played well enough to score 14 or 15 goals, and we didn't do it."
Other notes:
*The loss to Lafayette was unsettling in that the Leopards now hold the head-to-head tiebreaker in the race for the top seed in the Patriot League Tournament. The Midshipmen had put themselves in the driver's seat with last Saturday's 8-7 overtime win against No. 17 Bucknell, but now need the Bison to upend Lafayette when they meet this Saturday. "We've got a long way to go in the season, but that certainly was a big game Friday night, and we just didn't perform," Meade said. "People need to be critical of us because we didn't play well, and we need to be critical of ourselves to make those corrections in practice and be more determined to play better. But we've still got the whole season in front of us."
*Navy, which has built a reputation for designing stingy defenses, was blistered by the Leopards. Three Lafayette players scored at least three goals, and the 15 goals allowed were the most a Patriot League opponent had scored on the Midshipmen. In addition, the seven-goal loss was the largest margin of defeat in a Patriot League contest. "We're giving up some easy goals, and we just can't afford to do that," Meade said. "The hallmark of our defense is, we play a system and we make it very hard for you to score in 6-on-6 situations. Lafayette didn't get a lot of transition. They scored on us on extra man, they got some second chances, and when you're playing that much defense, they're going to get second chances."
*Navy won't have to wait long for a shot at redemption as it travels to Towson for a Tuesday night showdown with the host Tigers. After a 0-3 start, Towson is mulling a switch at goalie between senior Rob Wheeler and junior Travis Love – a move that Meade said the Midshipmen can't preoccupy themselves with. "I think both of them are pretty good, but I don't think that really matters to us," he said. "I think the biggest thing about this game from our standpoint is the Naval Academy. We had [senior midfielder] Pat Moran go 1-for-9 shooting, and we had some other inside-10-yard shots that we didn't convert on. … We didn't hit our shots. So all this stuff about whoever the goalie is for Towson, I don't think that matters as much as how Navy plays."
*With the Tigers falling, 12-8, to No. 6 Maryland on Saturday, the Midshipmen get one more day to prepare for Towson. After returning late Friday night from Lafayette, Navy gave the players Saturday off before returning to work Sunday. "It's an extra day of rest more than anything else," Meade said. "I think it's good that we're playing Tuesday night. We did not practice yesterday. We got back very late Friday night, so we gave our guys the day off. We did some preparation work as a staff yesterday. I think we're organized and prepared."